Chapter 6 - The Shattered Glass
We didn't sleep that night.
Jonah wanted to move us to a motel immediately, but I refused. "If we run now, Dean knows he’s won. He’s trying to scare us because he’s terrified of what we’ll find if we keep looking."
"Sadie, he has people who watch this building," Jonah argued, pacing the kitchen floor. "That man tonight... that was Leo. He’s Dean’s enforcer. He’s the one who clean things up when they get messy. If he’s here, it means Dean is bypassing my mother entirely."
"Good," I said, sitting at the table, my fingers tracing the silver engraving of my father’s initials on the lighter. "That means we’ve driven a wedge between them. Celeste wants to keep things quiet; Dean wants to keep things profitable. If they start fighting each other, they’ll make mistakes."
But Dean’s retaliation came faster than we expected.
It was three in the morning when the sound of shattering glass tore through the apartment.
A heavy brick came crashing through the living room window, showering the cheap sofa in sharp, glittering shards. Attached to the brick with a thick rubber band was a single sheet of paper.
Owen screamed, tumbling out of his bed in the hallway. Jonah was already on his feet, rushing to the window, but the street below was empty save for the taillights of a black SUV speeding away into the dark.
I walked into the living room, my bare feet avoiding the glass by instinct. I picked up the brick, pulled the paper off, and unfolded it.
It wasn't a note. It was a printout of Owen’s college enrollment page, with a red line drawn through his name.
"They're going after my school," Owen said, his voice cracking as he looked over my shoulder. "They're going to get me expelled."
"They can't do that," Jonah said, his face red with anger. "The foundation pays your tuition through a scholarship grant. If they pull the funding, you still have a right to be there."
"On what money, Jonah?" Owen yelled, his fear finally turning into rage. "We don't have twenty thousand dollars a year! We don't even have twenty dollars to fix this window!"
He slammed his fist against the wall, tears of frustration spilling down his cheeks. "I hate this! I hate being poor, I hate being scared, and I hate that we're still paying for what happened twelve years ago!"
I walked over to my brother and pulled him into a tight hug. He was seventeen, taller than me now, but in that moment, he felt like the little boy I had sworn to protect when our mother died.
"We aren't going to pay anymore, Owen," I whispered into his hair. "I promise you. We are going to make them pay."
Over his shoulder, I looked at Jonah. His face was set in a hard, grim mask I had never seen on him before. It was the face of a man who had spent three years waiting in a cage, and who was finally ready to tear the bars down.
"I know where the Apex files are," Jonah said quietly.
I released Owen and looked at him. "Where?"
"My mother’s house," Jonah said. "She has a study in the basement. It’s where she keeps the files she doesn't want the foundation board to see. She has a duplicate of the Apex ledger. If we get that, we don't just have Dean. We have Celeste, too."
"How do we get in?" I asked. "The house has security."
"The security codes haven't changed in ten years," Jonah said. "My mother is a creature of habit. And this Sunday is her annual charity gala at the museum. The house will be empty."
"It’s a burglary, Jonah," Owen said, his eyes wide. "If you get caught, you go back to prison. Forever."
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Jonah looked at me, his eyes soft, before turning back to Owen.
"Then we just have to make sure we don't get caught," Jonah said. "For twelve years, I let other people decide what my life was worth. I'm not doing that anymore."
