CHAPTER 16
The ride back to the city was silent,
the only sound being the rhythmic wiping of the windshield wipers against the glass.
Lily had fallen asleep from sheer exhaustion,
her head resting on Megan's shoulder,
her breathing shallow and uneven.
Megan looked down at the steel lockbox in her lap,
the prize they had run so far to protect,
feeling its cold weight.
She knew that inside this box lay the power to ruin Julian Vance,
but it also held the power to destroy whatever was left of her family.
Thomas drove directly to a secure safehouse,
a high-rise apartment in downtown Dallas with top-tier security.
Once inside,
Megan laid Lily down on the couch,
covering her with a duvet,
before turning her attention to the box.
"Can you open it,
Thomas?"
she asked,
her voice tight with anticipation.
Thomas produced a set of specialized tools,
working on the advanced lock with practiced precision,
sweat pooling on his brow.
With a sharp click,
the mechanism gave way,
and the lid popped open,
revealing a single encrypted flash drive and a stack of old documents.
Megan picked up the papers,
her eyes widening as she read the names,
dates,
and financial figures detailed within.
It wasn't just a corporate ledger;
it was a record of systemic corruption involving Vance and several high-ranking board members of Walker Holdings.
Jack had been acting as their middleman,
laundering money through fake medical equipment suppliers for years.
But then she noticed a separate note,
written in her father's distinct handwriting,
dated just weeks before his death.
"Megan,
if you are reading this,
I have failed to protect you from the truth,"
the note began.
"Jack did not start this corruption;
he entered it to pay off a debt I incurred to save this company from bankruptcy."
Megan felt the world spin around her,
the breath knocked out of her lungs,
as the truth shattered her entire reality.
Her father,
the man she idolized,
the saint she sought to honor,
was the one who had started the fire.
Jack had taken the blame,
May you like
had walked into the trap,
to shield her from knowing the truth about her own father's sins.
