PART 24:

You’re doing an incredible job with her. I’m trying. Some days are better than others. The fact that you keep trying is what matters. Evelyn hesitated, then said, “I need to tell you something about my father.” Noah’s attention sharpened. “Your father?” Richard Cross. He’s the one who actually founded Cross, though the public narrative is that I built it from nothing.

He gave me seed money 20 years ago, installed me as CEO, and has been the silent majority shareholder ever since. Pulling strings, making demands, using the company as his personal kingdom. Why are you telling me this now? Because after what happened with the covenant, after you showed me what it means to actually fight for something, I started digging into my father’s business dealings, and I found things, Noah.

Bad things, illegal things. He’s been using Croste as a front for money laundering, using our international contracts to move assets for people who shouldn’t have assets to move. I’ve been so focused on running the company that I never looked closely at where the money was actually coming from.

Noah felt ice water spread through his chest. Evelyn, if your father is connected to the kind of people I think he’s connected to, he is. I have proof. Bank records, emails, contracts with shell corporations, it’s all there. And when I confronted him about it 3 days ago, when I told him I was taking the company fully independent and cutting his influence completely, he threatened me.

What kind of threat? The kind that involves making sure I lose everything, the company, my reputation, possibly my freedom if he decides to frame me for his crimes. Her voice was steady, but her hands were shaking. He said, “If I don’t back down, if I don’t give him what he wants, he’ll destroy Cross and make sure I go down with it.

And Noah, I think he means it. I think my father is genuinely willing to burn everything rather than lose control. Noah was quiet for a long moment, watching Sarah in the car, practicing her presentation for an audience of stuffed animals in the back seat. Then he said, “What do you want to do?” I want to fight him.

I want to expose what he’s done and take control of my own company, but I don’t know how without destroying everything in the process. And I’m terrified that if I fight, he’ll come after you and Sarah to get to me. He won’t because I won’t let him. Noah met her eyes. But Evelyn, if you’re going to fight this, you need to understand what you’re walking into.

Your father isn’t some distant threat we can neutralize with clever tactics. He’s family. Taking him down means destroying that relationship permanently. Accepting that you might lose everything anyway. Are you ready for that? I don’t know, but I know I can’t keep living like this.

Can’t keep pretending I built something legitimate when it’s all been contaminated from the beginning. I need to clean this up, even if it costs me everything. Then we’ll help you, but carefully, methodically, the way it should be done. We You think I’m letting you face this alone after you stood by me against the Covenant? Not a chance.

Besides, I’m apparently terrible at staying retired. Noah smiled slightly. But this time, we do it right. We gather evidence. We build an airtight case. And we make sure that when your father falls, he falls alone. You and Cross stay clean. Evelyn’s eyes filled with tears. Why? Why would you risk this for me? Because you asked.

Because it matters. Because someone once told me that the world needs people who are willing to fight when everything else fails. And right now, you need someone willing to fight with you. She hugged him then, surprising both of them. Noah stiffened for a moment, then relaxed into it. It had been 4 years since Melissa died.

4 years since he’d allowed himself any connection beyond Sarah that mattered enough to be dangerous. But standing in that parking lot holding a woman who was trying desperately to become better than her circumstances allowed, Noah felt something he’d thought was dead forever. Hope that maybe life didn’t end with loss. That maybe opening yourself to people again wasn’t betrayal. It was survival.

They spent the next three weeks building the case against Richard Cross. Noah worked remotely using skills he’d promised himself he wouldn’t use again, tracing money through offshore accounts and shell corporations. Evelyn gathered internal documents, emails, contracts that proved her father had been systematically using tech for illegal operations.

Marcus coordinated with lawyers who specialized in corporate crime, preparing the legal framework for a complete separation. It was meticulous, exhausting work. Noah did most of it late at night after Sarah was asleep, compartmentalizing the way he’d learned in the service. During the day, he was present for his daughter, helping with homework, making dinner, being the steady parent she needed.

At night, he was something else entirely, tracking financial crimes across international borders with the cold precision that had made him valuable in his previous life. Sarah knew something was happening, but didn’t ask questions. She’d learned years ago that sometimes her father needed space. That sometimes his work required focus she didn’t fully understand.

But she also knew he’d never let it interfere with what mattered. So she trusted him the way children trust when they’ve never been given reason not to. 3 weeks into the investigation, Richard Cross made his move. Noah received a call at 2 in the morning from Evelyn, her voice tight with controlled panic.

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