Chapter 8
Carol did not deny the network.
She justified it.
“Your father built it.”
“He’s alive.”
Dennis flinched.
She corrected herself.
“Built it when he still led.”
My father stepped forward.
“I dismantled it after Grant took over.”
Carol laughed.
“You abandoned it.”
Dennis looked ashamed.
Important distinction.
Carol continued.
“Some of us understood the family still needed old channels.”
“Without telling me.”
“You were thirty.”
“I was the boss.”
“You were grieving Emily half the time and changing everything the other half.”
There it was.
Same contempt.
My modernization had become weakness in her mind.
Emily’s boundaries became interference.
Madison’s ownership became inconvenience.
“What did the old network do?”
Carol crossed her arms.
“Kept captains loyal to Holloway blood instead of your moods.”
I almost smiled.
“My moods.”
“You removed men your father trusted.”
“For stealing.”
“You shut routes.”
“For using families as cover.”
“You stopped storage at the orchard.”
“Because it belonged to my wife.”
“Your wife.”
She said it like insult.
Then I saw it.
Carol never accepted that Emily created a loyalty in me separate from the Holloways.
Marriage should have absorbed Emily.
Instead Emily changed me.
That was the betrayal Carol never forgave.
“What happened when Emily found your network?”
Carol’s face hardened.
“She threatened to expose it to you.”
“Yes.”
“And?”
“She was hysterical.”
Of course.
“What did you do?”
“Nothing.”
Raymond shifted.
I noticed.
“What did Raymond do?”
Carol looked at him.
Too late.
Raymond swallowed.
“I followed her.”
My jaw tightened.
“Where?”
“The night she died.”
Dennis sat down hard.
He did not know.
Neither had Carol, apparently.
Interesting.
“Why?”
“Carol told me to get the notebook back.”
Carol stared.
“I told you to speak to her.”
Raymond laughed bitterly.
“You knew what that meant.”
The room went cold.
Raymond followed Emily because my mother wanted the notebook.
Emily died on the highway that same night.
May you like
And the old network survived.
Until a forged property transfer finally pulled the truth back into the light.
