Chapter 5 - Unearthing the PastWarren lowered the wrench slowly. He looked at Calvin, then back at Camille. With a heavy sigh, he knelt beside the workbench, pulled back a sheet of corrugated tin, and lifted a loose section of concrete flooring.
Beneath it lay a waterproof PVC pipe.
He pulled it out, unscrewed the cap, and handed a crisp, folded legal document to Camille.
She unfolded it under the harsh yellow work light. Her eyes scanned the signatures. There it was: her name, forged with terrifying precision by the man she had trusted as a brother for over a decade. Beside it was Warren’s signature, extorted under threat of losing his garage and his right to adopt Calvin after his sister passed away.
“He threatened you,” Camille whispered, her voice shaking with rage. “He threatened your family.”
“He said if I ever came forward, they’d brand me as an arsonist and take my boy away,” Warren said, his jaw clenching. “What would you have done?”
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Camille looked at Warren, really looked at him—not as a mechanic, not as a lower-class anomaly in her privileged world, but as a father who had risked everything to protect a stranger’s child, and then spent three years hiding in the shadows to protect his own son.
“I would have done whatever it took,” Camille said softly. “Just like you.”
