Chapter 5 - A Different Kind of Debt
The screech of metal against wood tore through the tension like a buzzsaw. Malik lunged forward, scooping up a handful of the scattered hundred-dollar bills from the floor, his fingers curling into the paper until his knuckles turned white. Elena let out a soft sob, sinking onto the edge of the couch and pulling her knees up to her chest as the second knock shook the entire doorframe loose.
"Move," Marcus said, grabbing Malik by the shoulder with a grip that was surprisingly iron-clad for a man who looked half-starved. "If they come through that door now, you lose everything. Not just the apartment. Your future, your clean record, all of it."
"Let go of me!" Malik yelled, shaking Marcus off and backing away toward the kitchen archway. "I'm not running anymore. I haven't done anything wrong! I earned every cent of this cash working fifty hours a week at a job you probably set up just to keep tabs on me!"
"You think the law cares about your hours at the warehouse?" Marcus asked bitterly, stepping into Malik’s path. "That money you're holding—look at the serial numbers, Malik. Look at the stamps on the band."
Malik glanced down at the stack in his hand. Stamped in faded purple ink across the paper band was a logo he recognized instantly: the logistics seal of the very shipping company that owned the warehouse where he worked. It wasn't rental income from the upstairs landlord. It was payroll skimming, funneled directly through dummy accounts operated by the same syndicate that had burned down the original records five years ago.
"You made me an accomplice," Malik whispered, the horror washing over him in a cold wave. "You let me work there so I could wash the cash."
"We kept you fed," Elena cried from the couch, her voice breaking as she buried her face in her hands. "We did it so you could go to school, so you could have a life outside of this filth."
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The deadbolt clicked loudly as it was forced backward from the outside, the door swinging open to reveal the dark silhouette of a man in a trench coat holding an open badge case.
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