The image shifted to a scrolling list of bank accounts, offshore wire transfers, and recorded phone calls.
“My team has spent the last twenty minutes stripping your firewalls,” I explained. “We have the records of your bribes to Henderson and the evidence of your company’s tax evasion.”
Simon’s face turned the color of ash as he realized his empire was being dismantled in real-time.
“Now, you are going to speak into the microphone,” I told him. “You will confess to the assault on my daughter and the corruption of the local police.”
“If I do that, I lose everything!” Simon wailed, looking up at the silent, masked men surrounding him.
“If you don’t, I let my men upload your location to the cartel you’ve been stealing from in Mexico,” I countered. “I think the law is a much kinder fate than what they have planned for you.”
Simon broke like a dry twig under a boot, weeping as he confessed every crime he had committed over the last decade. His mother sat on the sofa nearby, her face a mask of horror as she realized their world was ending.
“Everything is recorded and sent to the federal authorities,” the lead operative, a man called Jax, reported into his headset.
“Good,” I replied. “Leave the evidence for the feds and clear out.”
Six months later, the world was different, and the air was filled with the smell of autumn leaves.
The Thorne family had been stripped of their wealth and their freedom, with Simon and his mother facing decades in prison. The story of their corruption had dominated the news for weeks, leading to a complete overhaul of the local government.
I stood in the hallway of a physical therapy center, watching through a glass window as Callie worked with a trainer. The scars on her face had faded, and the light in her eyes had returned with a fierce intensity.
She stood between the parallel bars, her knuckles white as she gripped the metal. She took a step, then another, her face set in a grimace of pure determination.
She reached the end of the bars and looked up, seeing me standing there. A wide, beautiful smile broke across her face, and she let go of the support to walk toward me on her own.
I stepped forward and caught her, pulling her into a hug that felt like the closing of a long, dark chapter.
“I told you I’d be here,” I whispered into her hair.
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