Chapter 8
Thomas dragged me behind a row of lockers.
His arm tightened around my neck.
The blue box slipped from my hands.
“You should’ve stayed out of this,” he said.
I drove my heel into his foot.
He cursed.
Ruiz shouted my name through the smoke.
Thomas pushed me to the floor and reached for the box.
Noah appeared behind him holding a fire extinguisher.
He sprayed Thomas directly in the face.
Thomas stumbled backward.
Rebecca pulled me away.
Ruiz tackled him before he could reach the exit.
The masked shooter escaped.
Thomas claimed he had followed us because he was worried.
Ruiz held up his gun.
“You brought this because you were worried?”
“It’s licensed.”
“And the ring?”
Thomas looked at me.
“She’s confused.”
“I saw you in Mom’s video.”
For the first time, his calm expression broke.
The blue box survived the fire.
Inside were printed bank records, photographs, and one small digital recorder.
Mom’s voice filled Ruiz’s car.
“Melissa and Thomas have been stealing from Daniel’s company for three years.”
Rebecca covered her mouth.
Mom continued.
“They’re using Daniel’s signing key. If he discovers the truth, Thomas will blame him. Melissa says she can control Daniel after I’m gone.”
The recording paused.
Then Mom described seeing Melissa with Sergeant Mercer.
Mercer had hidden complaints from contractors who discovered the fraud.
In return, Thomas had paid his gambling debts.
The last file had been recorded inside Mom’s car.
Rain struck the windshield.
“I’m driving to meet Daniel,” she said. “Someone is following me.”
An engine roared behind her.
Mom gasped.
The recording ended with a crash.
Ruiz arrested Thomas on fraud charges.
He still denied hurting Mom.
Melissa denied everything from jail.
Mercer disappeared before Internal Affairs could question him.
Dad’s murder hearing was scheduled for the next morning.
Rebecca presented the recordings.
The prosecutor argued they proved Melissa and Thomas stole money but did not prove Dad was innocent of murder.
Then Mercer’s original accident report was introduced.
He claimed Dad’s fingerprints had been found under the hood of Mom’s car.
Rebecca demanded the laboratory report.
The prosecutor said it had been destroyed after five years.
The judge refused to dismiss the charge.
But he granted Dad bail.
We waited outside the jail.
Noah held a drawing he had made of our family.
Dad emerged just before sunset.
He knelt and opened his arms.
Noah ran to him.
I stayed where I was.
Dad looked at me.
“You don’t have to forgive me.”
“You chose Melissa.”
“I did.”
“When I told you she scared me, you said I was jealous.”
“I remember.”
“You made me apologize to her.”
Tears filled his eyes.
“I remember that too.”
I wanted him to deny it.
I wanted him to say I was wrong.
Instead, he said, “I failed you.”
I finally walked into his arms.
He held us both.
Then a gunshot cracked across the parking lot.
Dad jerked.
Blood spread across his shoulder.
Rebecca screamed.
Ruiz pushed us behind a concrete barrier.
A black sedan sped away.
Dad collapsed beside us.
Noah pressed his small hands against the wound.
“Don’t die,” he begged. “Please don’t die like Mom.”
Dad looked at him.
“I’m not leaving you.”
His eyes rolled closed.
The ambulance arrived within minutes.
As paramedics lifted him, Ruiz found a spent shell near the fence.
A message had been carved into it.
May you like
One word.
BLUEBIRD.
