Chapter 5 - The Father's Betrayal
I threw myself in front of Ethan, shielding him with my own body.
Richard stopped inches from us, his chest heaving as he held the heavy extinguisher aloft.
His face was a mask of sheer panic and furious anger.
He begged me to step aside, claiming he was trying to save our family from ruin.
I spat at his feet and asked him how covering up our daughter's murder was saving us.
Richard’s voice cracked as he lowered the weapon slightly.
He confessed that Liam had accidentally hit Maya with his car on the night of the formal.
Liam had been drunk, and they were arguing about the pregnancy.
The Mayor had called Richard that night to clean up the mess.
In exchange for his silence and his help disposing of the body in the river, Richard was promised a lucrative political career.
Richard justified it by saying Maya was already dead, and ruining Liam's life wouldn't bring her back.
He said the money and the promotion were meant to secure a better future for me and Ethan.
I stared at the man I had married, feeling a level of revulsion I had never known existed.
He had sold our daughter’s justice for a promotion.
He had locked her bloody dress in his office safe like a gruesome trophy.
Ethan stepped around me, his fists clenched tightly at his sides.
He told his father that he disgusted him.
Richard’s expression hardened, and he raised the extinguisher again.
He stated that he would not let a stupid teenager destroy everything he had built.
Before Richard could swing, a massive figure tackled him from the side.
It was one of the other fathers from the crowd, a burly mechanic who had heard the entire confession.
The mechanic pinned Richard to the ground, shouting for others to help.
Several parents rushed forward, forming a protective wall around me and Ethan.
The crowd had realized that the Mayor and the police were the true villains here.
Ethan grabbed my hand and pulled me through the backstage door.
We sprinted down the narrow, dimly lit hallway toward the broadcast room.
The flash drive Ethan had mentioned was our only hope of exposing them beyond this locked room.
We burst into the broadcast booth and locked the heavy soundproof door behind us.
Ethan booted up the school's PA system and the massive projector controls.
May you like
He pulled a small silver flash drive from his sock and plugged it into the console.
Just as the loading screen appeared on the monitor, a loud gunshot shattered the glass window of the booth.
