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Chapter 6
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When Old Days Burn Out Chapter 10
Ten days later the court handed down its first judgment.Julian was convicted on multiple counts, soliciting the attempted sexual assault, aggravated assault, falsifying evidence, and obstruction of justice, and sentenced to five years. Ryan, as an accomplice, got three. The security employee, the lab technician, and the others who'd taken money to alter evidence were sentenced as well.The day it came down, Julian finally took the mask off. He shouted at me across the courtroom. "You ruined me, Ethan! I'll never let this go. Not ever."Ryan looked at me one last time. His mouth moved like he wanted to apologize. In the end nothing came out.The sun outside the courthouse was almost painful. I put a hand up against it, and the last seven years went strange and distant, like a long, ridiculous dream I'd finally surfaced from.Claire was waiting for me on the steps, with shadows under her eyes."The share price is down forty percent. Two of our biggest investors have pulled out." S
When Old Days Burn Out Chapter 9
In an interview room, Ryan was nothing like the man from the hospital corridor."I didn't know anything. I passed messages for Julian, that's all. I didn't know what he was planning. He's the one who contacted those women. I was the middleman."He looked at me through the glass, his face a mess of tears. "Ethan, more than ten years. You can't be this cold."I remember what you did for me. I'm grateful. I never wanted to hurt you. But Julian promised me that if I helped him I'd be made vice president. I've been working toward that for years—"The more he said, the less of it held together.I looked at him and couldn't find anyone I recognized. More than ten years, and it hadn't been worth as much as a title.Julian's case was more complicated. His depression diagnosis turned out to be fabricated, and the chain of evidence on the drugging and the arranged assault was complete. The missing quarter hour of hospital surveillance ended up being the most useful thing in the file. Invest
When Old Days Burn Out Chapter 8
A week later, Bennett Group held its annual client appreciation dinner at a hotel downtown. The ballroom was lit up like a stage. I walked in with the guests.From across the room I could see Claire on Julian's arm by the head table, laughing with a group of partners. Julian was in a suit that had been made for him, and there wasn't a trace of the fragile man everyone swore was falling apart.Ryan stood near them with a drink. My mother was there too, at a table in the corner with relatives, as though she'd forgotten she had a son living out of a hotel.I took a breath and walked to the head table.Their faces when they saw me were worth something.Ryan got there first. "Ethan? How did you get in here?"I smiled. "Is there a rule that says I can't come?"Partners nearby picked up on it and turned to look.Claire's expression went dark. "Ethan, whatever this is, we can talk about it later. Tonight matters for the company."Julian came in right on cue. "Ethan, I know you're not
When Old Days Burn Out Chapter 7
They had the corridor footage within the hour.On the screen, I walked to the storage room by myself, opened the door, and went in alone.Detective Whitlock frowned. "You're certain Ryan locked you in."I was freezing and I couldn't look away from the screen. "That's been altered."They pulled the hospital's monitoring logs. There was a fifteen-minute gap covering exactly the window in question, flagged by the system as a technical fault.My tox screen came back clean. Nothing in my blood at all.The whole thing looked like a production I'd staged myself.With nothing to hold, the police took the women in for questioning and left it there.Claire's face closed completely. She looked at me with open disappointment. "Ethan, how long are you going to do this? Julian has depression. Are you going to start pretending you're ill too? When did you turn into this?"She stopped looking at me and walked Julian back toward his room.People had collected in the hall by then, pointing, ta
When Old Days Burn Out Chapter 6
Something in my head went quiet all the way down.She turned to the police. "I'm his mother. His mental state hasn't been stable for a while now. He gets things mixed up."Ryan dropped his head and arranged his face into something wounded. "Mrs. Blake, don't defend me. If Ethan doesn't trust me, nothing I say is going to matter."She took his hand. "Don't take it to heart, Ryan. He isn't thinking straight. He'll understand once he's calmed down."I stood there and watched it happen. My own mother. She knew enough of the truth to know exactly what she was doing, and she said one light little sentence and put the whole thing back on me.Detective Whitlock's eyes went around the group and came back to me. "Sir. Are you sure you want to file?"I opened my mouth. My mother got there first. "No. This is a family matter. It'll look terrible if it gets any bigger."I pulled the blanket tighter and said it one word at a time. "I'm filing. I want Julian investigated for drugging me and fo
When Old Days Burn Out Chapter 5
The storage room door crashed open and the light came in like a blade.The police weren't alone. Claire was with them, and when her eyes landed on me, the composure she never took off finally cracked."Ethan—"I flinched away from her hand without deciding to. It stopped in midair.One of the officers took in the room and settled on the door. "Who locked this?"Footsteps came down the hall. My mother and Ryan. The second she saw the room her eyes went red and she came at me with her arms out."Ethan! What happened in here? What—"I threw her hand off. "Don't touch me."A detective crouched down and put a blanket around my shoulders. The badge on her belt said Whitlock. My strength was coming back in pieces, but the cold that had gotten into my bones wasn't going anywhere.Claire turned on Ryan. "What happened here?"His face moved through two or three expressions before it settled on a strained smile. "Ethan was extremely worked up. I was worried he'd do something he couldn't
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