Chapter 8 - THE NIGHT THEY CAME FOR JUNE
I did not go alone.
I also didn't tell June to stay behind.
Those were her children.
Nobody had the right to turn her into a spectator.
Police traced the message to an abandoned Blackwell distribution property near Joliet.
My father had helped build it thirty years earlier.
June sat beside me in an unmarked vehicle.
Her hands shook.
“I should've kept them with me.”
“No.”
“I sent them away because I couldn't afford—”
“June.”
She looked at me.
“This is not your fault.”
She stared forward.
“I hate when rich people say that.”
Despite everything, I almost laughed.
“Fair.”
She wiped her eyes.
“So don't comfort me.”
“What do you want?”
“Help me get my children.”
That I could do.
My father wanted the original flash drive.
We gave him one.
A copy.
I entered the warehouse carrying it.
Thomas stood between stacks of abandoned pallets.
Lila and Micah were nearby with one of his former security contractors.
My father looked old.
For the first time in my life.
“You brought police.”
“Yes.”
He laughed.
“You were always a terrible liar.”
“Let the children go.”
“Give me the drive.”
“It won't help you.”
“It proves nothing without the metadata.”
“It has already been copied.”
His face changed.
“You're lying.”
“Eight hundred twelve people have copies now.”
Not literally.
But enough attorneys and investigators did.
“You can't bury this anymore.”
His control broke.
For decades, Thomas Blackwell had believed money meant the ability to decide what became true.
Then June walked into the warehouse.
“Mommy!”
Lila screamed.
The security contractor turned.
That distraction was enough.
Police moved.
Everything happened quickly.
Shouting.
Running.
A crash.
No heroic gunfight.
No dramatic death.
My father simply ended up face down on the concrete with his hands behind his back.
June reached her children.
She dropped to her knees.
Both crashed into her.
I turned away.
Some moments don't belong to you simply because you're present.
My father was led past me.
He stopped.
“For them?”
I looked at him.
“You threw away everything for employees whose names you didn't know?”
“No.”
I thought about Emily.
About June.
About the pantry floor.
“I found out what the empire actually cost.”
He shook his head.
“You're weak.”
Maybe once that would have hurt.
Now it sounded almost childish.
“No, Dad.”
I looked at June holding her children.
“I just finally learned the difference between owning something and deserving it.”
May you like
They took him away.
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