CHAPTER 29 #2
“You said these women were terrorists.”
“They are.”
The monitors showed footage from Carter House.
Jayce’s bomb vest.
Children in glass rooms.
Harris activating their profiles.
Cross’s agents looked toward her.
The lies were collapsing faster than she could replace them.
“Stand down,” one agent said.
Cross shot him.
Chaos exploded.
Dymond drove her shoulder into the agent beside her.
Serena kicked the gun from another man’s hand.
Karen grabbed his keys.
Nesha covered Monica with her body.
I swung my cuffed hands into Cross’s face.
The phone flew from her grip.
She fired.
The bullet struck the SUV window.
I tackled her against the hood.
She pressed the gun beneath my chin.
“Call Meech off.”
“No.”
“I will kill you.”
“You’re live.”
“I don’t care.”
“That’s the difference between necessary and useful.”
I smiled through the blood.
“They don’t need you anymore.”
Cross pulled the trigger.
Nothing happened.
Empty.
She stared at the gun.
I struck her across the face with my cuffs.
She fell.
Karen unlocked Dymond first.
Dymond took the weapon from Cross and pressed it against her forehead.
“Give me one reason.”
Cross laughed.
“You think a livestream changes anything?”
“It changed your agents.”
“They’re weak.”
“It exposed you.”
“There are people above me.”
“Then they’re watching.”
Dymond cocked the gun.
“Good.”
I placed one hand on her arm.
“Don’t.”
“She threatened your children.”
“I know.”
“She used Monica’s heart.”
“I know.”
“She killed her own agent.”
“I know.”
Dymond looked toward the cameras.
Then lowered the gun.
“Let them see her arrested.”
Serena restrained Cross with the same cuffs she had placed on us.
The remaining agents surrendered one by one.
Real FBI vehicles entered the garage minutes later.
This time, Meech sent us names before anyone approached.
No Circle connections.
No payments.
No secret coins.
I still didn’t trust them.
But I allowed the medics to take Monica.
Nesha went with her.
Dymond and I were placed in separate ambulances under protective guard.
Not custody.
Protective guard.
There was a difference.
A small one.
But after everything, small differences mattered.
???
We spent three days in a secured military hospital outside Washington.
Dymond underwent another surgery.
Nesha finally completed the operation she had escaped twice.
Monica remained unconscious.
Serena and Karen gave statements for thirty hours.
Meech gave federal investigators enough copies of Cross’s confession to make sure none of them could disappear.
The Carter Foundation money remained untouched.
A federal court froze it temporarily, but every dollar stayed inside the trust.
Evelyn Cross was charged with kidnapping, attempted murder, conspiracy, child trafficking, and enough federal crimes to keep her inside a courtroom for years.
The surviving Circle members began turning on one another before the first hearing.
Judges resigned.
Agents confessed.
Officers named supervisors.
Politicians claimed they had been forced.
Everybody was suddenly a victim once the truth became more powerful than the lie.
On the fourth morning, an attorney entered my hospital room.
Tasha followed him.
I tried to sit up.
She pushed me back.
“You’re always in a bed when I see you now.”
“You’re always telling me what to do.”
“Somebody has to.”
The attorney placed a folder on my lap.
“All federal charges against you connected to Andre Williams’s murder, the Carter Bank explosion, Circle House One, and Carter House have been dismissed.”
I stared at him.
“What about Lawson?”
“Video from the bank shows he attempted to kill you. Tasha’s shooting has been ruled defense of another person.”
I looked at my sister.
“You’re clear?”
She smiled.
“I’m still judging your lifestyle.”
For the first time in days, I laughed.
“What about the cocaine?”
“The archive proves Lawson’s team planted it.”
“My store?”
“The laundering investigation remains open.”
I stopped laughing.
“But your mother accepted responsibility for using the business without your knowledge,” the attorney continued.
“Momma confessed?”
“To financial crimes, conspiracy, and obstruction.”
“What happens to her?”
“She negotiated a cooperation agreement.”
“How much time?”
“We don’t know.”
Tasha sat beside me.
“Momma says whatever happens is the bill arriving.”
Uncle Kendrick’s words.
Death was the bill arriving.
For Karen, prison might be.
“What about Serena?”
“No active charges related to the Circle. Simone’s death occurred decades ago, and the evidence supports self-defense.”
“Monica?”
“If she wakes, she will face serious charges.”
Nesha entered in a wheelchair.
“Then she’ll face them.”
Her voice remained weak.
But clear.
“She made choices,” she continued. “Saving us at the end doesn’t erase them.”
The attorney nodded.
“What about my children?” I asked.
Tasha’s smile returned.
“Waiting outside.”
Jayce and Amaya entered before she finished the sentence.
I opened my arms.
They climbed into bed beside me.
This time, no officers stood outside.
No bombs.
No photographs.
No threats.
Just my babies.
“Are we going home?” Amaya asked.
“Yes.”
“To which house?” Jayce asked.
I looked at Tasha.
She nodded.
“The police released yours this morning.”
“What about the store?”
“Boarded up.”
“Can it be fixed?”
“With enough money.”
I looked toward the attorney.
“The foundation cannot pay for your private business.”
“I know.”
Nesha smiled.
“I have seven million dollars.”
I stared at her.
“You’re not using your inheritance to rebuild my store.”
“Fine.”
She looked toward Tasha.
“Our inheritance.”
Tasha shook her head.
“You can keep it.”
“Kendrick left it to both of us.”
“What?”
Nesha pulled out the transfer documents.
Kendrick had created New Beginnings Medical Group for two beneficiaries.
Janesha Carter.
Tasha Carter.
His two daughters.
Three and a half million each.
Tasha stared at the papers.
“He knew.”
“He always knew,” Nesha said.
Tasha’s eyes filled with tears.
“I don’t want his money.”
“Then do something better with it.”
They looked at each other.
Not strangers.
Not cousins.
Sisters learning what that word meant after the man connecting them was gone.
Jayce tugged my sleeve.
“Momma?”
“What?”
“Did you stop the empire?”
I looked around the room.
Dymond was alive down the hall.
Nesha was alive.
Tasha was free.
My children were in my arms.
The Circle was exposed.
Its houses were closed.
Its hidden heirs had been erased.
“Yes.”
“Forever?”
I thought about Evelyn Cross.
The officials who hadn’t been identified.
The people who believed power made them too important for rules.
“No empire disappears forever,” I said. “Somebody always tries to build another one.”
His face fell.
“But now we know what it looks like.”
“What does it look like?”
“Like people telling you they have to control you for your own good.”
Amaya frowned.
“That sounds like you.”
Everybody laughed.
Even me.
“Sometimes it does.”
The room door opened.
Dymond stood there holding an IV pole.
“You started the family reunion without me.”
“You’re supposed to be in bed.”
“So are you.”
She walked inside and sat beside Nesha.
For a moment, I looked at all of us.
Dymond.
Nesha.
Tasha.
Me.
Four women connected by different mothers, different fathers, hidden blood, and choices none of us made.
The Carter women.
Not an empire.
A family.
Dymond handed me an envelope.
“What is this?”
“First Carter Foundation meeting.”
“When?”
“Next month.”
“I don’t work for you.”
“You’re chairwoman.”
“Who decided that?”
“The children from Carter House.”
I opened the envelope.
Inside were twenty-three handwritten votes.
Every child had selected me.
Eli’s note was on top.
YOU SAID WE COULD CHOOSE. WE CHOOSE YOU.
My eyes burned.
“What does a chairwoman do?”
Dymond smiled.
“Probably less shooting.”
“No promises.”
Jayce leaned against me.
Amaya held my hand.
For the first time since I drove down Tenth Street with a song playing too loud and drugs in my purse, I could see a life beyond the next danger.
Not perfect.
Not clean.
But ours.
My phone rang.
Rome.
I answered.
“You safe?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“The children are ready to come home.”
“We’ll be there tomorrow.”
A pause.
“There’s something else.”
My body tightened automatically.
“What happened?”
“Nothing bad.”
“That’s new.”
“The Atlanta house belongs to Laila now.”
“I thought it belonged to her mother.”
“It did.”
“What are you saying?”
“Laila found a letter. Her mother left the property to establish a home for girls escaping street violence.”
“That sounds like the foundation.”
“That’s what I thought.”
I looked toward Dymond.
“We might have our first property.”
“Then we have work to do,” she said.
Rome became quiet.
“What?” I asked.
“One more thing.”
“Of course.”
“Somebody left a package at the gate.”
“Who?”
“No name.”
“What’s inside?”
“A gold key.”
The room went silent.
I looked toward Dymond.
The original key had been destroyed.
The empire was gone.
There should not have been another.
“Don’t touch it,” I said.
“Too late.”
“Rome—”
“It isn’t electronic.”
“What is it?”
“A regular key.”
“To what?”
He read the label attached to it.
My beauty supply store address.
Beneath the address were three words.
START WHERE SHE STARTED.
“Who sent it?” I asked.
Rome turned the tag over.
His voice changed.
“Dre.”