Page 129 of Finding the Forward: Part Two
“You can’t do this. Don’t you know who I am? Who my family is?” Chet spat, though he didn’t fight them. “Winnie, love, you have to let me go.” He gave her a kiss.
“No. Please don’t take him from me.” She let go, but continued to cry. Bertie gave her a look of disgust and made no move to reassure her.
I felt bad that she and the kids would pay for what Chet did. Hopefully, she had a nice family or good friends to help her out.
“This isn’t going to stick,” Bertie told the man in the suit.
“Albert Chesterton, you’re under arrest for willfully allowing the exploitation of a federally insured banking system.” The man in the suit looked bored, as if he did this all day long.
He might.
Bertie looked startled. “I would never. Chesterton Financial is an old and elite institution.”
Yeah, he hadn’t seen that coming. But then he knew that his son was using the family bank to exploit clients and how he was doing it. His bank wasn’t tamper-proof if you were a Chesterton.
“Handle it,” Bertie snapped at his lawyer as he was taken into cuffs.
“We’ll be in touch,” the man in the suit said to us as he left with Chet, Bertie, and everyone else who came.
Winnie was full-on hysterical sobbing as the lawyer tried to reassure her.
I couldn’t help but wave at Chet, both joyful and relieved that he’d be punished for not just what he did to me, but the others he stole from.
“Case dismissed.” The judge stood and left.
The lawyer led Winnie out of the office, and she shot me a withering look.
“Don’t,” AJ warned.
Our lawyer looked at us, triumphant. “Well done. It worked. Good thing I don’t have any money in Chesterton Financial.”
“Thank you.” I hugged AJ, because so much of this was him.
“Chet’s an asshole. I feel bad about the wife and kids, but that’s not our problem. Chet is a menace and has harmed more than you. There are so many people rooting for him to rot in jail.” AJ hugged me back. He took my hand. “Let’s go have a celebratory beer and tell the pack?”
It felt like a load lifted off my shoulders. “Let’s.”
Chet would pay for his crimes. Now to get my job back.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Jonas
“Great practice everyone, see you tomorrow,” Coach Dodd told us. The older alpha was all bundled up against the February chill.
Unlike some of my teammates, I loved practicing outside.
While the team had been boycotting practices and games for a week, we hadn’t wanted to let our skills get rusty. It started off as a group of us playing around at the outdoor rink at the Roganfort Center. We’d practice a little, then play against whoever wanted to.
Now the entire team showed up for practice. So did Coach Dodd, one of the assistant coaches. Coach Atkins had been here earlier.
We were prepared to do this as long as we had to, and our union supported us. Sure, at some point the Knights could come after us for breach of contract, but would they fire the entire team?
Lots of people were watching us, including some people with sticks, ready to join us. How often did you get to play a pro team?
“Looking good, Knights.” A middle-aged man in a suit came over to us, walking on the ice in his loafers in a way that only came with practice.
We all eyed him warily.
