maids will do them, no daddy I just want to move the plates to the kitchen that's all, alright when you're done meet me in the study, okay dad,
That night in the study I told Ari everything
Everything.
The files. The names. The vote.
She didn't cry.
She thanked him,
Then I went very quiet.
After the Truth
"I want revenge dad," she said calmly.
"but I want it in records. Hearings. Convictions method "
I nodded slowly
That was when I knew she was stronger than justice and than I ever thought she was,
She was better than it.
War, Legally
Ari didn't rage.
She strategized. She grew well and am proud of it,
She built cases like architecture—load-bearing facts, pressure points, exits for the innocent.
"Emotion clouds argument," as she always says,
I smiled knowing that the girl is all grown up and strong,
But her eyes burned.
I told her to rest and not to disturb herself that much, she only needs to fight the court battle!
I told Ari the truth
That I failed to stop it. That I chose to obey her father wish and draw my boundaries not interfering in his business over heroics. That everything I built afterward was to prevent another child from sitting in blood and silence.
She listened.
Then she hugged me.
I almost broke.
The Man Who Raised Me
Uncle Gideon never lied.
"I don't want your empire," I told him.
He smiled. "You already changed it."
That was the moment I realized—
He'd been waiting for me to outgrow him.
Hope Is Dangerous
For another million times, the case felt winnable.
Clean.
Legal.
We weren't hunting monsters.
We were exposing systems.
I slept next to Ari that night cause I couldn't bring myself to let be alone not after hearing everything, I fear she might do something crazy to herself, that's my only family here, I can't take chances, I dreamed of children who didn't inherit fear.
Elaine Ward's Smile
She walked into court confident.
Left uncertain.
Ari never attacked her directly.
She let documents speak.
By the end, even the judge leaned forward.
The Name That Fell
Elaine Ward resigned three days later.
Investigations followed.
No blood.
No shadows.
Just accountability.
My parents' names were cleared publicly for the first time,
At the next court case, I put her in jail.
I breathed, letting go feels so cool,
I signed the last document.
Go on a vacation with Dad and on the day of our return he presents me with a
Transferred influence to foundations, trusts, reforms.
Ari inherited none of the crime.
Only the reach.
That was the point and has been the plan,
I proposed in the kitchen.
She laughed. Cried. Said yes.
Justice can be beautiful.
Time, Rewritten Ari and Ben married quietly.
And had children who never learned the sound of gunfire.
She still practice law.
She still win.
But now—
Time no longer hunts me.
It walks beside me.