Page 72 of Twisted Empire

20

Tatum

Eighteen months later

Hulking cemetery gatesloomed before me in the afternoon light. A towering black iron arch over them had the words ‘King Estate’ picked out in gold above the family crest.

To enter the private cemetery, I had to skirt around a pile of dead leaves a gardener must’ve swept up earlier. Only weeks ago, the air was warm and the streets of New Marwick were lined with summer-green trees. Now the leaves were red and gold, deserting their branches in the chilly gusts which blew through every few hours.

I walked along the leafy path heading west, stopping when I reached a slab of black granite with gold lettering. This was it.

I knelt down beside the gravestone. “Hi,” I said softly, not wanting to disturb two birds perched on a nearby stone. “I know I should’ve come to visit you sooner, but I…”

I shook my head and trailed off. The birds chirped and flew away.

I cleared my throat and started again, my voice louder now. “I know in the grand scheme of things, we didn’t know each other all that long. Just a few months. But that doesn’t invalidate everything that happened, and it doesn’t affect how I still feel about you. How I’ll always feel about you.”

I paused and touched a hand to the cool granite, stroking my fingertips over it. “There’s so much I want to tell you,” I went on. “But first I think I need to say what I should’ve told you far more often when you were still alive. Those three little words you still deserve to hear every day.”

I leaned forward and lowered my voice. “Rot in hell.”

I drew my head back, fingertips tracing the inlaid gold lettering beneath my hand. Tobias King, 1963 - 2018.

“You know, the only thing that makes me sad about your death is that you missed all the drama that night. All the arrests. All the screaming protestors on the streets over the next few weeks.” I smirked and shook my head. “I would’ve loved to see your face when you realized how screwed you were. Lucky for me, though, Elias can describe it whenever I ask.”

I smiled and leaned forward again. “Yeah, that’s right, you slimy prick. Despite your best attempts, Elias is still alive.”

I remembered the events of that night as clearly as if it all happened yesterday, even the things I hadn’t directly witnessed and only heard about secondhand.

When Tobias realized the gravity of his situation with Elias and the rat poison, he’d apparently hit a panic button under his desk and stabbed his son with a letter opener. By the time the guards managed to break down the locked door, he was already stone cold dead. Elias was unconscious and bleeding heavily, but they got him to the closest medical wing in time to help him. At some point he’d awoken and told the doctors there was strychnine in his system, and they’d been able to treat him for that too.

At the time, I’d been hiding out in the Catacombs with Pri, waiting for Crown and Dagger to blow up. And blow up it did. Within three hours of Greer’s article going viral, a SWAT team descended upon the Lodge and chaos had reigned for the rest of the night.

In the past, the society could’ve paid off some police captains or politicians to make their problems go away, but not this time. Their ‘problem’ was now millions upon millions of people who weren’t going to forget or let this go now that they’d seen and read what the society had done over the decades. Arrests had to be made. Heads had to roll.

Not all the third-level members were at the Lodge that evening, but the article had a full list of names and within a day of its release, every single one of them was in custody. Mellie, too.

They weren’t the only arrests made, however. Over the next few weeks, thousands of new arrests were made as many of the people the society had paid off to stay silent or cover things up for them were taken in too—media magnates, high-up members of the police, multiple politicians including several senators and members of Congress. On top of that, the men and women who’d sold their daughters to the society had been imprisoned, including my parents.

I didn’t bother visiting them.

Even now, a year and a half later, arrests were still being made frequently by a task force the non-corrupt members of the government had created to deal with the situation. Crown and Dagger had its slimy tentacles almost everywhere, so it was taking a long time for them to sift through all the corruption and shady deals, but the message was clear: we’re coming for you.

There was simply no way anyone associated with the third level of Crown and Dagger could continue to get away with what they’d done. The public wouldn’t allow it to happen, wouldn’t allow the furor of the case to die down after a few weeks as so often happened with other cases that caused public outrage. This time everyone was finally saying they’d had enough of being stepped on. Had enough of corrupt old rich men getting away with everything while so many suffered under them.

“Oh, and speaking of Elias, guess what?” I said, still peering down at the gravestone. “We’re still together, and after today, we’ll be free to do whatever the hell we want. That’s the main reason I came here this morning. To tell you that your son still loves me, and I love him too.”

A gust of wind picked up and blew right past me. I liked to think Tobias sent it; a demonstration from beyond of his foul mood.

“You know, you never deserved to be a father,” I said, glaring down at the headstone. “But I’m so glad you were anyway, because somehow, despite all your insane shit, you raised an incredible son. That’s the only good thing you ever did, although I’m sure you can’t take too much credit for it. The team of nannies you hired for Elias when he was a child probably had more to do with it.”

I sniffed derisively and stood. “One more thing,” I said, holding up a hand. “I’m sure you desperately want to know what’s happened to your money. So here it is. The stock prices of most of your family-owned companies totally crashed when the news of what you’d done came out, and most of your fortune was obliterated by that. Right now, there’s only two billion left, shared between a hundred direct family members. That sounds like an astronomical amount to me, but I know it’s mere pocket change to you.”

I almost expected to hear a scraping sound as Tobias rolled over in his grave.

“Here’s the best part. Elias used a substantial amount of his share of what was left to establish an organization which helps women escape violence and human trafficking. I’m guessing that’s literally your worst nightmare.” I smiled again. “Anyway, I have to go now. Don’t expect a visit from your son anytime soon. Or ever.”

I turned around, stepping confidently through the cemetery. I didn’t look back.

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