Chapter 7 - The Exposure
Two days later, the front page of every major news outlet in the state featured a headline that made the Holloway family name radioactive:
EXPOSED: LOCAL HARDWARE EMPIRE BUILT ON TOXIC WASTE AND FAMILY BETRAYAL.
The article, backed by the documents on our flash drive and Marcus’s meticulous investigative reporting, detailed not only the illegal dumping operations of Apex Solutions but also the systemic financial fraud perpetrated by Warren and Elaine Holloway.
Television news vans choked the street outside Holloway Home & Tool. State environmental protection officers had swarmed the property with heavy excavation equipment, unearthing barrels of industrial solvent from beneath the concrete floor of the storage yard.
And the fallout was instantaneous.
By Tuesday afternoon, the state attorney general’s office issued an emergency asset-seizure warrant, freezing all personal and corporate accounts tied to Warren, Elaine, and their defense counsel. Vance Sterling dropped them as clients within an hour of the public broadcast.
Lucas and I sat in the sunny living room of our apartment, watching the news coverage while Maisie played happily on the rug with her stuffed rabbit and her yellow blanket, completely oblivious to the storm outside.
My phone rang. It was an unknown number with a local area code.
"Answer it," Lucas encouraged, placing a warm hand on my shoulder.
I pressed accept. "Hello?"
"Maya?"
It was Tessa. Her voice sounded broken, small, and utterly defeated. "Mom and Dad have been denied bail. The judge classified them as flight risks because of the offshore transfers. I’m... I’m alone, Maya. The police are seizing my apartment too because my lease was tied to the family trust."
I looked out the window at the blue sky, feeling a profound sense of closure wash over me.
May you like
"You made your choice, Tessa," I said calmly. "You helped them put my two-year-old daughter in a dumpster. Be thankful you weren't sitting in the back of that cruiser with them."
Before she could answer, I hung up the phone and blocked the number.
