Chapter 5
The sheriff shouted for backup. Two deputies drew their weapons and moved forward.
I ran after them.
“Stay back!” one yelled.
“I know him,” I said. “Let me talk to him.”
We stepped onto the porch.
Inside, Daniel sat on the floor by the fireplace. The gun lay on the stones a few feet away.
He wasn’t hurt.
He was just crying.
“I didn’t mean to,” he said, without looking up. “I just wanted to scare them. I didn’t want to hurt anyone.”
The deputies moved in slowly. They picked up the gun. They helped him stand.
He didn’t fight.
When he saw me, his face crumpled.
“Why did you do this?” he whispered. “Why did you become someone I couldn’t keep?”
“I didn’t change,” I said. “I just stopped pretending to be someone else.”
They led him out in cuffs. He didn’t look back.
The sheriff turned to me.
“He’ll face charges,” he said. “Threats, trespassing, brandishing a weapon. With your evidence, it’ll stick.”
I nodded. I felt empty. Not triumphant. Just tired.
I stayed with my parents for the next week. I slept in my old room—the one with the chipped paint and posters I’d outgrown years ago.
Margaret called three times a day. At first she begged. Then she blamed me. Then she cried.
Finally I answered.
“Margaret,” I said. “I’m sorry it ended this way. But you taught Daniel that people are only worth what they can give you. You taught him to be cruel to anyone who couldn’t help him. That’s not my fault. That’s yours.”
She went quiet.
“I know,” she said, very softly. “I always knew I was raising him wrong. But I was too proud to stop.”
A few days later, my lawyer called.
Daniel had agreed to the divorce. He’d signed everything. He wouldn’t contest it.
He also admitted what he’d done at his company—fraud, embezzlement, falsifying reports.
“Carter Enterprises is finished,” the lawyer said. “But Hale Capital won’t be dragged down. We’re clean.”
I sat on my parents’ porch that evening. The sun was setting over the fields.
My mom brought me a glass of lemonade.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
“I will be,” I said. “I think I finally am.”
May you like
But I knew there was one more thing I had to do.
***
