Chapter 6 - The Domino Effect
The following forty-eight hours were a blur of flashing lights and sterile hallways, but this time, I wasn't the one being interrogated. My father sat in a holding cell, his tailored suit rumpled and his face grey with the realization that his empire of cards had finally collapsed.
My mother had fled, but she didn't get far. The authorities tracked her to a hotel near the airport, her bags packed with the remaining liquid assets she had tried to siphon off at the last second.
The most difficult part was watching Madison. She sat in the interrogation room, a shadow of the girl who had bragged about her yacht on the phone just days prior. She looked at me through the glass, her eyes hollow. She was facing accessory charges, her life potentially ruined by the very people who claimed to love her most.
I didn't feel triumph. I felt a cold, hollow clarity. I visited Jake the next day. He was sitting in the empty shell of our old apartment, his hands still scarred from his work.
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"I didn't do it for the money, Emily," he said, looking at the newspaper headlines featuring our parents' arrest. "I did it because I’m your brother."
"I know," I said. "And because of that, you’re never going to have to worry about tools or rent or anything ever again."
