Chapter 6
The cold steel of the revolver pressed firmly against the dark polo shirt over Arthur’s chest. The garden instantly fell into a suffocating, dead silence, broken only by the distant barking of a neighborhood dog three blocks away.
Clara screamed, a high, piercing sound of pure terror, and lunged forward. "Don't! Dad, stop it! He’s just a kid—he doesn't know what he's doing!"
"Step back, Clara," Richard commanded, his voice as cold and flat as the metal in his hand. He didn't blink as he stared directly into Arthur’s eyes. "A man who grabs me by the lapel in my own backyard is past the age of being a kid. He’s a trespasser armed with intent."
Arthur didn't flinch. He kept his breathing slow and deliberate, staring down the barrel of the gun with a terrifying calmness that seemed to unnerve Richard just a fraction.
"Go ahead and pull the trigger," Arthur whispered, his voice steady. "The police are already three minutes away. Every gunshot you fire just adds another decade to the cell waiting for you."
Richard let out a short, cold laugh. "Police? Arthur, my dear boy, do you really think I walked onto this property without checking the local precinct logs? There isn't a patrol car within five miles of this suburb right now. I bought every badge in this district twenty years ago, and inflation hasn't changed their loyalty."
Eleanor stepped forward, her face twisted in absolute fury. She raised her hand and slapped Richard across the cheek with a sharp, echoing crack that startled even him.
"Put that gun away, Richard!" Eleanor shouted, her chest heaving under her yellow blouse. "You have terrorized this family enough. If you shoot him here, there is no running away this time. The house is surrounded."
Richard slowly lowered the gun, though he didn't put it away. He rubbed his cheek where Eleanor’s hand had struck him, his blue eyes gleaming with dangerous amusement.
"Surrounded by whom, Eleanor?" Richard asked softly. "You and Clara? Or perhaps the ghosts of all the people who trusted me?"
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"By the one person you forgot to pay off," a calm, unfamiliar voice called out from the darkness of the front pathway.
Everyone froze as a tall figure in a dark trench coat stepped out from the shadows, holding a glowing smartphone up to the light.
