Page 76

Rhue

“What’s going on in there?!” Dad’s frantic, furious shout cuts through the door. Laura doesn’t even blink; she just keeps editing and uploading. “Open this door! Open it, right now!”

He slams his body weight against the door over and over, but the four of us refuse to budge. His frustrated roar trails out into the main office, clashing with the sounds of people rushing and shouting. Phones start ringing, a dozen of them, all at once.

Dad shouts at some people and bellows at some others. Something crashes into the wall, sending chips of plaster raining down over the desk. Laura calmly grabs a can of compressed air and sprays the plaster dust away, then returns to her task.

“You can’t do this to me! This is slander! Libel! Steve—Steve! I know you’re in there you son of a bitch. I pay your salary! Open this damn door!”

“He does, you know,” I say, glancing at Steve. “What convinced you to stab him in the back? Aren’t you worried about your job?”

Steve shrugs without moving his broad shoulders away from the door. “I was hired to be a bodyguard,” he says. “Killing kids and covering up murders wasn’t in the job description. Figure if the old man’s gonna be changing the rules, I can too.”

I stare at him. “What the hell are you talking about, Steve?”

“Libel! Slander! I’ve called the police! You just threw away your future—all of you! I hope you’re proud of yourself, Laura! You’ve ruined yourself! Your brother! Your friends! You’re too weak to live with that—you’re too weak to live!”

Steve glares daggers through the door. “For starters, let me just go ahead and confirm that your father killed your mother,” he says through his teeth. “I was there.”

Maddie gasps and presses into me and it’s a damn good thing she does. I’m blinded by rage. A year—a whole year this bastard let me think that my mother kill herself. A whole year, and he never once turned my father in to the cops. A year!

There’s more shouting from the office, official-sounding barked orders—but then the little window in the door shatters and Cameron screams, holding his shoulder as he drops to the floor. Blood squeezes between his fingers.

“Cameron!” Lindsey screams.

“Get down!” I shout.

She barely reacts in time. The wall explodes exactly where her head was a split second before.

Laura frantically tries to wriggle out of her seat, but she’s pinned by the desk and she’s not thinking clearly in her panic.

I shove Maddie to the floor and lunge for my sister, but Steve gets to her first—then grunts as a bullet pierces his torso.

Sweating and pale as death, he shields Laura with his body as he pulls her out of the chair.

“Steve,” she whispers, horrified. Tears fall from her eyes as she peels her cardigan off. She balls it up and slides it under him, against the exit wound. Pulling herself with her arms, she crawls onto him, lying across his back. “Pressure on the wound,” she murmurs to herself. “Pressure.”

She’s under the table, but a good shot could still find her.

I’m crouching where I landed when I lunged for her, right beside the desk.

Keeping my eyes on the window, I reach around for something, anything, I can use as a weapon.

My fingers close around a heavy metal hole punch and I smile.

As soon as I see the gleaming gun barrel, I throw the hole punch with all my might.

Perfect shot. A grunt, a shriek of pain, a stray bullet whizzing into the ceiling, and Julian collapses outside the door. A moment later the building is flooded with police.

“We need medical in here!” I shout.

The next few moments are a blur. Julian is hauled to his feet and immediately starts shouting, his voice thick and fuzzy through the blood pouring from his broken nose.

EMTs tend to Cameron and Steve, after being momentarily distracted by Laura’s paralysis.

It takes a few words for them to accept that her useless legs are a pre-existing condition.

There’s nothing but chaos for a while. As a precaution—and probably in order to keep us all together—all of us are taken to the hospital, escorted by the police.

More questions. More answers. Rochester calling Tompkins, DAs demanding answers, riots breaking out in the streets—because the ads are still playing.

Laura managed to upload every single one of them—and now the city is watching.

Screaming for Julian’s head on a platter.

I’m sitting with Laura and Maddie in the waiting room, waiting for Steve to get out of surgery.

Cameron has already been patched up, and Lindsey is with him.

The TV is still showing the ads, and I’m watching them all, soaking them in.

There’s a lot I didn’t know. There’s a lot that I did know, that didn’t have the same impact as it does now with Laura’s editing.

“This one,” Laura says softly, turning the volume up. “This is the one you need to see.”

“Julian Echeveria; family man. Through the heartbreaking news of his wife’s suicide and his daughter’s subsequent suicide attempt, Julian has maintained—”

Laura’s voice interrupts the voiceover. “I didn’t jump that night. Dad pushed me off the balcony.”

The image of her in her wheelchair, silhouetted against the red, white, and blue background, appears onscreen. I’m speechless. The truth should have a lesser effect on me after everything else I’ve learned about my father, yet this…this still takes the cake.

“I confronted him about my mother’s death. I found her journal not long after the funeral. She had suspicions about Dad--she talked about Madison, about Sibel, about Claire and—God, so many other girls. She had plans—solid plans—she was going to take him down.”

“Laura.” It’s all I can manage.

My heart bleeds again, and Madison keeps her hand tightly in mine, knowing that I’m moments away from a complete collapse. Slowly, I lean into her, thankful for her strength.

“I figured it out,” Laura’s voice continues.

“I figured out that Dad did something to Mom. There were other things I noticed before and after Mom’s death.

Things I didn’t put together until I read her diary.

We were in the third-level gym. He was on the treadmill, doing one of his 5k runs.

I was so angry—I told him I was going to the police. ”

There’s not much I can say. What Laura is remembering now is something she’s been holding inside herself for almost a year. “Fuck! He let you think you tried to kill yourself,” I mumble.

“No. He only thought he did,” she says grimly. “I never forgot, Rhue.”

I hold her hand, tears threatening to fall as her story unfolds before me.

“He grabbed me by the arm and threw me off the terrace. He tried to kill me. When I hit the ground, he thought I was dead.”

“When he found out I wasn’t—he was furious.

Furious because I survived, and he couldn’t bring himself to finish me off.

I remember hearing his voice, telling one of his bodyguards to finish me off.

The bodyguard refused—and was given an alternative choice.

To be my Manny—to police my words—to make sure nobody ever hears what really happened that night. ”

The pre-recorded spot disappears entirely and Laura’s face comes onto the screen, grim and beautiful, innocent and so world-weary.

“But now you’ve all heard,” she says. “If this is still playing, my father is either dead or in prison. If he has his way, I’ll be dead right along with him.

But that doesn’t matter—as long as he can’t hurt anyone else, I’ve done more than he ever thought I could do.

” She pauses, swallowing emotion, her eyes full of tears.

“Just in case I never get to say it for real—I’m Laura Spaulding, and I approve this message. ”

We’re all in tears now. I pull Laura into an embrace and drag Maddie along with me. We’re holding each other, crying, when a soft voice reluctantly interrupts.

“I’m sorry,” Mr. Willis says. “But—Maddie? Honey? Are you okay?”

“Daddy!” Maddie peels herself away from me and throws herself into her father’s arms.

He’s holding her, tears rolling down his face, when Noelle walks in. She looks tired, but proud; as she should be. Most of the recordings were her work. I nod to her, and she returns the gesture.

“Passed Contreras in the hallway,” she says. “He wants to talk to both of you.”

“Haven’t been announced like that since senior prom,” Contreras says grumpily as he steps up behind her. “Hey, kids. Let’s go somewhere private. Got something to tell you.”

“Please,” I tell him. “No more secrets. I trust everyone in this room with my life—and I just don’t have the energy to hide anymore.”

“Agreed,” Laura says. “I’ve been having to play dumb for my idiot brother for weeks.”

I grin down at her. It doesn’t even bother me. We’re alive, we’re together, and the whole city knows the truth. Contreras shrugs and sits down across from us.

“Your dad was placed in genpop,” Contreras says. “Normally wouldn’t happen that way—but with riots breaking out left, right, and center, the place was in chaos. Lots of homeless people in genpop—lots of people knew your mom personally—lots of people loved her. And—ah—lots of TVs playing.”

Laura squeezes my hand. “What happened?” She asks.

Contreras sighs. “Riot broke out. He might have gotten away with it, what with the broken nose and all, if he wasn’t wearing his own flair and arguing with the TV.

It was over before we could stop it—all the little people Julian was so happy to squash under his heel squashed him right back.

He died before we could get him to the infirmary. ”

Stunned silence fills the room. I should feel something, shouldn’t I? He just told me my father is dead. Beat to death. I should feel—something. But all I feel is relief; it’s over. It’s really and truly over, and that man will never have another chance to ruin something good.

“Thanks for letting us know, officer.” I put my arm around Laura’s shoulders, then slide my other arm around Maddie’s waist as she comes to stand beside me.

Mr. Willis comes along with her, and Noelle stands behind me with one hand on my shoulder and her arm around Maddie.

I look around me, at all these people who have become so important to me—who have risked more for me than my father would ever dream of—and I know I’ve found my real family. “I think we’ll be okay.”

And we are. Steve makes it out of surgery and onto my payroll.

Cameron has an awesome new scar to show off.

Lindsey works up the nerve to tell the world about her relationship—and the world doesn’t care because it’s still reeling from the story of political corruption which continues to unravel (under Noelle’s firm and persistent guidance) in the wake of my father’s death.

Laura is in therapy for real now that she can be honest about her memories, and she’s dropped most of her extracurriculars to focus on her own healing.

Maddie and I are getting married after college.

I hired her father to manage the house and investments for me while I’m in school—he was hesitant at first, but as it turned out, managing the big house isn’t that much more work than managing the small one—it’s just more delegation.

He’s really good at it, and I’m grateful to have him in my life.

Almost as grateful as I am to have Maddie by my side—my partner, my lover, my occasional rival. My Maddie—forever and always.

THE END