Chapter 9 - The Reckoning
My father’s sudden presence in the courtyard sucked the remaining air right out of the night.
He walked past me with a curt nod and marched straight into the restaurant's main lobby.
I followed him inside just as my mother emerged from the restroom, wiping away her angry tears.
When she saw Richard Hayes standing there in his full dress uniform, she froze as if she had seen a ghost.
“Richard?” she whispered, her voice barely audible.
“You have spent fifteen years telling these girls that I abandoned them, when the truth is, you hid my letters and poisoned them against me,” my father said, his voice booming through the empty hall.
My mother shrank back, finally stripped of all her lies and manipulations in front of everyone.
He didn't give her another second of his time; he turned his back on her and walked over to Ryan.
He pulled a stamped, sealed document from his breast pocket and shoved it into Ryan’s chest.
“Your clearance is fully reinstated, son, and Alan Brooks will never see the light of day again,” my father declared.
Ryan read the paper, his knees practically buckling with relief as Lily threw her arms around his neck.
Lily looked at my father, a man she hadn't seen since she was a toddler, with cautious gratitude.
Then she looked at me, realizing the impossible strings I had pulled to make this happen.
“Nora, how did you fix this?” Lily asked, walking over to grab my hands.
“I just made a trade, that's all,” I lied with a gentle smile.
My father looked at his watch, his expression returning to stone-cold military precision.
The family hierarchy was completely shattered; my mother was isolated, Alan was in jail, and Lily was finally safe.
Everything was perfectly set for the wedding tomorrow.
My encrypted phone vibrated aggressively in my pocket.
May you like
I pulled it out and read a single, terrifying text message from Pentagon Command.
“Target location shifted; your extraction chopper arrives in exactly three hours.”
