Chapter 18 - THE PEOPLE ON THE PAGE
They found the surviving families.
Not all wanted exposure.
One woman begged them to keep her mother's name sealed.
A man in California wanted everything public.
Another family wanted compensation but no press.
For weeks, the story slowed.
That was necessary.
Truth was not a bomb to be detonated.
It belonged to people.
Walter listened more than he spoke.
Daniel learned to do the same.
Michael met relatives of civilians Thomas had tried to evacuate.
Some thanked him.
One blamed Thomas for failing.
Michael did not defend a father he barely knew.
Raymond agreed to testify.
His lawyer advised silence.
He refused.
Not because he had suddenly become brave.
Because at seventy, career preservation finally seemed ridiculous.
Voss provided evidence against Rebecca.
He asked Michael to visit.
Michael went.
Voss apologized.
Michael said, "I believe you're sorry."
Voss looked hopeful.
Michael continued, "That doesn't make us okay."
The hope disappeared.
Good.
Forgiveness was not a prize owed to confession.
Rebecca was arrested after attempting to move corporate records offshore.
She was charged with obstruction, conspiracy, and crimes tied to Crewe's later cover-up, not with everything her father had done.
Walter disliked how small the charges sounded.
The prosecutor said law was not poetry.
Walter hated that she was right.
Then investigators found evidence clearing Rebecca of Alan Crewe's murder.
The shooter had been a former Crewe employee trying to protect himself.
One last convenient villain did not appear.
The conspiracy had fragmented long ago.
People were now hurting one another for separate reasons.
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That made the truth uglier and more believable.
