Chapter 103
Chapter 103
Ethan leaned back in his chair and finally spoke, his voice flat. "Is that enough evidence now?"
Cruz's knees buckled, and he sank to the floor.
He had figured that if he could just hold out through the first wave of accusations today, he would still have room to stall, maybe even find some loophole in the rules to keep himself alive. But the moment Jennifer laid that document on the table, he understood. This wasn't a surprise visit to call out one person. They had already dug up every dirty thing he had ever done and were just waiting for today to tear it all open in front of everyone.
"I admit it." His voice came out rough. "I made the arrangements."
The room went dead silent.
Even the people sitting in the back no longer dared to hold onto any hope. Because everyone could see it now. The way names were being called today, Cruz was not going to be the only one.
Ethan did not speak right away.
He let his gaze sweep across the room, then finally let one quiet line drop. "Anyone else?"
Just three words.
But they made the back of everyone's neck prickle more than any name that had been called before.
Because this was no longer about Cruz or Levi. It was a direct message to the entire Chicago Dragon Security Bureau branch: now was the time to stand up on your own. If they waited to be called out one by one, kneeling would be the least of their problems.
The Carrow family home did not settle for a single moment that entire night.
What happened outside Kaufman Manor the night before had landed like a boulder dropped into the chest of every name worth knowing in Chicago. Nobody said much out loud, but behind closed doors everything had already been turned upside down. Carroll in particular had gone straight home after the banquet, hadn't even changed out of his clothes, and had called together every person in the Carrow family who had any standing.
The hall was blazing with light, but there was no warmth in it.
Everyone sat with their backs straight, and yet no one dared look up at the old man at the head of the room. Because it was plain to all of them that the look on Carroll's face tonight was different from anything they had seen at any family meeting before.
Carol walked in quickly from outside, her heels clicking sharp against the floor. She came to Carroll's side and lowered her voice. "Grandfather, people from every family in Chicago are already moving."
Carroll lifted his eyes slightly. "And the Dragon Security Bureau branch?"
"The news has been confirmed." Carol nodded, her voice quieter than usual. "Eddie conducted an internal purge last night. That's not a rumor. It's real."
Several people in the room visibly changed color when they heard that.
An internal purge.
That kind of thing would have been remarkable anywhere, but this was Eddie, the head of the Chicago Dragon Security Bureau branch. The fact that someone had pushed him to that point meant that what happened last night was not simply the confrontation they had all witnessed on the surface. A real and very heavy hand had come down over all of their heads.
Carroll let out a slow breath, and something in his eyes finally surfaced that he could not quite hold back. "It's him," he said.
No one dared respond.
Carol understood exactly how much weight those two words carried. Her chest tightened. "Grandfather, are you saying the one who returned to his position today is the man who was standing behind Lena all last night?"
Carroll did not answer directly. But his cane came down hard against the floor. "The gifts delivered last night. The show of force at the Dragon Security Bureau branch this morning. Eddie's internal purge. And Schumann, who looked like he knew everything from start to finish and refused to say a single word about any of it." He spoke slowly. "Put all of that together, and anyone who still can't see it is the one who's truly lost their mind."
The room went even quieter.
Many of the Carrow family members had assumed up until now that last night's birthday banquet was just an incident, some mysterious faction using Carroll's event to play out a scheme. But hearing Carroll speak this way, they began to understand, slowly and clearly, that it was never a scheme at all. Someone had deliberately gathered all of Chicago's most prominent people into one place on the same night, so they could all see one thing for themselves, with their own eyes.
Starting today, the person who truly ran this city was coming back.
Carroll raised his eyes and let his gaze move slowly across the room. "From this moment on, every arm of the Carrow family is to watch the Dragon Security Bureau branch and City Hall closely." He paused. "City Hall especially. From here on out, if anyone makes a move against them without my direct order, I don't care who it is, they will be removed from this family."
The moment those words landed, more than a few people in the room stopped breathing.
Removal was not an ordinary punishment. It meant cutting a person off from the family entirely, with no road back and no way out. Carroll had never given that order lightly, but tonight he said it without a moment's hesitation.
Finally, Owen Carrow, sitting toward the back, could not hold himself any longer. He stood up, steeling himself. "Grandfather, the Carrow family may not be at the very top of Chicago, but we're not the kind of family anyone can just push around. The mayor hasn't even officially shown his face yet. If we lower ourselves this much now, won't it seem like..."
"Kneel."
Carroll did not raise his voice even slightly.
Owen went white. His knees gave out and he knelt, not daring to lift his head again.
"Did you not understand what I said?" Carroll fixed his eyes on him, and the quiet light in them turned sharp. "After him, anyone else who questions what I just said will be removed the same way."
No one made another sound.
Carol stood off to the side and watched the sea of lowered heads fill the hall. She didn't think for a moment that this was excessive. Because she knew better than anyone that Carroll wasn't afraid of some new mayor, and he wasn't going soft with age. He had simply seen, in everything that happened last night and this morning, far more than anyone else in this room had managed to see.
That man had not come to take a normal office.
He had come to change the rules.
And for someone like that, the earlier you chose a side, the better your chances of survival. Anyone who still thought they could size him up with the same eyes they'd always used — by the time he actually turned his gaze on them, it would already be too late to regret anything.
Carol pressed her palm closed and felt, unexpectedly, a small flicker of anticipation.
All of Chicago had been stirred up today, and everyone was waiting for the moment this figure finally showed his face. She wanted to see him too. The man Carroll was this certain about. The man Schumann was willing to stand behind without a word. She wanted to know what he actually looked like.
Across the city, the Davis family was caught in a very different kind of tension.
Where the Carrow family had settled into a kind of resolute calm and pulled back their posture, the Davis family had been in a state of panic from last night straight through to now.
Crow was dead. Nobody dared speak plainly about the bloodshed at the Davis family's own doorstep, but no one had forgotten it either. Then the mountain of extravagant gifts piled up outside Kaufman Manor the night before had landed like a slap, stripping away whatever face Lucas had been trying to hold onto and leaving nothing behind.