Page 71 of The Maverick (WaterFyre Rising #7)
CHAPTER SIXTY-SIX
ATTIKUS
Vanessa sat down at the table, flanked by me on one side and her mom on the other.She looked anxious about what Agnes wanted to share. My curiosity was piqued too.
How had I not known about Agnes, Mom Gigi, and Ellen? I flicked Ellen a look, and she just smiled.
“Don’t worry, it’s not bad news,” Agnes said from across the dining table.
“What have you been hiding from me?” I asked.
Mom Gigi wrapped her fingers around her cup of tea. “Agnes, Heidi, and I have known each other for a long time.”
“You have?” Vanessa blurted. “From where?”
“We’re part of the Lunch Lady Club.” M? placed a hand over mine.
“I thought that was just a small meeting with your friends after work,” Vanessa said.
“It was a small meeting that grew over time,” Agnes said. “A lot of the lunch ladies are moms who worked those hours so they could be home with their kids after school. Their pay sucked, so we often had other jobs on the side.”
“Then we met someone who changed our lives,” Gigi said, looking at me. “Your mom, Susan, discovered Harris Foods LLC—the company supplying food to the schools—also owned a pharmaceutical company.”
“Harris Pharmaceuticals?” I asked.
“Yes,” said Mom Gigi. “Susan started looking into it and found evidence that children were eating food with ingredients that made them sick.”
“Kids suddenly got rashes, developed respiratory issues, depression, anxiety, mood swings, and so on,” Vanessa’s mom said. “I noticed the mental changes, especially in kids I was familiar with.”
Mind control and behavior patterns .
Milton’s words echoed in my head. The Trogyn, the CIA, Harris Pharmaceuticals, and Harris Foods LLC were all linked.
Vanessa gripped my thigh under the table, revealing how much she wanted to hurt these people. I covered her hand with mine, trying to soothe her, even though I felt the same way.
“The principals of the schools and the superintendents were all in on it.” Agnes sipped from her tea mug. “They chose what vendor to feed our kids. It was always Harris Foods LLC.”
Agnes continued to tell us that my mom had started the Lunch Lady Club. I had assumed she was a regular lunch mom at the school. Pride, regret, and anger surged in me. She had died trying to do what was right.
Vanessa rubbed her hand on my thigh, and I looked at her. We didn’t need to say anything to each other. Her eyes told me she understood my emotion.
The Lunch Lady Club started out small but grew to include other moms from different cities and states.
“When Susan gathered evidence that connected Harris Pharmaceutical to Harris Foods LLC,she wanted to report it to the police department.” Mom Gigi clasped her hands together on the table. “She spoke to a school police officer, who suggested she set up an appointment to talk to the police chief.”
“But then your whole family was murdered the next day.” Agnes pressed her lips into a tight line.
I swallowed, trying to calm the rage building inside me as I connected the dots. “Was his name Officer Collins?”
Agnes nodded.
“I would’ve died from my injuries if I hadn’t been transferred to the hospital,” I said.
This wasn’t a question but a fact. These people had wanted to obliterate my entire family because my mother planned to expose their evil intentions.
“Fate led us to kill Dillon Harris that day in the alleyway.” Heidi wrapped an arm around Vanessa. “I knew his family would blame us for everything. We didn’t have a chance against them back then.”
“These people need to pay,” Vanessa seethed.
“They will,” I said calmly. Everyone turned to look at me as though they heard more in my voice. They were right, but I didn’t want them to worry. “But it’s going to take time. Do you have any of the evidence my mom gathered?”
“Sadly, it burned with the house,” replied Mom Gigi.
I looked over at Ellen, who had been sitting quietly, listening to our conversation. “Was Ellen a lunch lady too?”
“Hell, no.” She made a face. “I don’t have the patience for that.
My mom was friends with Gigi.” She held the fresh spring roll in her hand, preparing to dip it into the peanut sauce.
“When she passed, Mom Gigi adopted and taught me everything about the Lunch Lady Club. I’m now their outstanding accountant.
” She smiled, dumped the spring roll into the dish of sauce, and bit into it.
I looked at Mom Gigi. “You have a knack for harboring orphans.”
“Some kids deserve to live, and some don’t,” she said without blinking.
“I concur,” Agnes, Heidi, and Ellen agreed.
They didn’t know that two out of the three boys she referenced were already dead because of me. I’d spare Mom Gigi the heartache of knowing her son had blood on his hands.
We ate and chatted some more. Agnes told me the Lunch Lady Club was still active, but not in the same capacity. They feared Harris Pharmaceuticals would go after them. They weren’t wrong. This was a multibillion-dollar company with dangerous people protecting their assets.
My hatred toward them was so powerful, I was afraid the throbbing vein in my neck would burst.
Around nine o’clock in the evening, Agnes saved me a trip by driving Vanessa’s mom back to her apartment and Mom Gigi and Ellen home. Vanessa wanted her mom to stay the night, but she refused. She wanted to have her own space to appreciate her freedom first. Vanessa promised to visit her every day.
When the house was quiet again, we sat on the couch in the living room with our hands linked.
“Thanks for this extravagant plan. How did you get the key to my apartment?”
“I own the building now.”
“I can’t keep up with you.” She kissed my cheek. “It’s like you have three brains all functioning at the same time.”
I gathered her into my arms. “I’m still trying to absorb what I’ve learned today about my mom knowing your mom.”
“It’s surreal and incredible.”
Mom Gigi said the lunch ladies only met to discuss issues and talk a little about their families, which was why she didn’t know Vanessa when she first met her. She only found out from Agnes, who had visited Heidi in prison. She knew who Vanessa was when she married us in Maui.
“Do we need to inform your mom about our fake marriage?” I asked.
“Yes.” Vanessa nodded. “She’ll want to hear the truth from us.”
“Okay.”
“She’s staying at my apartment now, so I can pay the lease.”
“Don’t insult me, Vanessa.”
She stiffened, straightened up, and considered me. “I don’t mean it in a bad way. It’s your property, and she’s living there. I can’t have her stay for free.”
“Who says she’s staying for free?” I pulled her to me. “You’re my girlfriend, and you’re paying me with your cooking and painting sessions.” I smiled, rubbing away the worry between her eyebrows. “I have a lot of properties, and I’m not losing any money by letting her stay there.”
“Are you sure?”
“Absolutely, Lily Pad.”
She poked me in the chest. “Now I want to know how you extracted her safely. I thought you were just going to have your lawyer ask for a new trial.”
“That was the original thought, but I got some more information that made me revise the plan. Leo was going through with the rescue, even though you told him not to.”
“What?” She bolted up. “Why? They already got the money, which I took as a loss.”
I told her how Leo was using the extraction to create chaos for the city and the prison. That her mom was going to die—to create disorder—so they could launder illegal drugs for The Trogyn.
“I can’t believe there’s a drug lab in the prison’s basement.”
I described how my team pretended to be correctional officers driving the prisoners to pick up trash.
They also got a woman’s body from the morgue the night before and dressed her in the same prison outfit.
When the three attackers came, my men assisted the women to safety and killed the attackers.
My men torched the van with the corpse inside. The city assumed Hannah Lam was dead.
When I finished the story, Vanessa gawked at me. “That sounded very calculated and complex.”
“It was.”
She hugged me. “If I’m ever falsely incarcerated and put in prison, I want you”—she pinched my cheek—“to be the maverick who masterminds my escape, okay?”
I chuckled. “Okay. But no one will dare touch you.”
She rested her head on my shoulder for a moment. I looked down when I heard a little snore.
I didn’t tell Vanessa that my lawyer would sue the city on her behalf so she could recuperate the money and time she’d lost. The City of Providence and its officials owed the Lam family much more than money could ever offer.
My Lily Pad had an emotional day. I could share this news with her later.