They Threw Me Away at Twelve, So I Came Home Undefeated novel · Chapter 20 of 24

Chapter 20: Nothing Left

I crossed the ballroom floor and walked straight into Dutch's chest.

He smelled like the warehouse, old canvas and liniment and cold concrete.

His big hand came down on the back of my head and stayed there.

"Easy, kid," he said roughly. "You'll crack a rib."

"I already cracked one."

"I can see that."

"They let you out."

"A detective heard the recording you sent my phone," Dutch said. "It was in the evidence locker with my keys. He said the raid was a setup, and he went and found a judge."

I had sent that recording from the garden and forgotten it.

A phone in a police locker had saved him.

I held on to his jacket and did not say anything.

Over my shoulder, Dutch looked at Perry.

Perry looked back.

Neither one of them spoke.

On Monday morning, I sat at the end of a very long table on the top floor of Thornquist Freight.

The boardroom had glass walls and a view of the river.

It had not belonged to my father since Saturday at dawn.

My grandmother sat at the head in her chair with her oxygen tank beside her, and her lawyer stood at her shoulder with a stack of papers.

Seven board members faced her.

Not one of them would look at me.

"The detective filed an emergency petition on Saturday," the lawyer said. "A judge has voided the false death record. Miss Thornquist is legally alive, and her ten percent of the company is restored to her this morning."

A man with white hair coughed. "And Eldon's vote?"

"Eldon Thornquist has been suspended from every office pending trial. His shares are frozen. He holds forty-one percent, and he cannot vote a single one."

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