Chapter 13 - The Shot He Refused to Take
“Move back!” Harold shouted.
Agents held their positions.
Margaret’s face was wet with rain and tears.
“Lucas,” she said, “don’t risk anyone else for me.”
Harold tightened his grip.
“She finally understands her value.”
Lucas met Margaret’s eyes.
She had betrayed his father.
She had helped hide Evelyn.
She had tried to save Emma.
She had lied again.
She was not innocent.
But justice was not the same as execution.
Lucas slowly lowered his weapon to the concrete.
Harold laughed.
“There he is. The weak boy.”
“No,” Lucas replied. “The weak boy would have shot through her.”
Harold’s smile faded.
Lucas took one step closer.
“You taught me fear was power.”
Another step.
“You taught me mercy was weakness.”
Harold pulled Margaret backward.
“Stay where you are.”
Lucas stopped.
“But my daughter taught me something in fifteen minutes that you couldn’t teach me in fifteen years.”
“What?”
Lucas glanced at the blue bracelet.
“That protecting someone is harder than destroying them.”
Margaret suddenly drove her heel down on Harold’s foot.
Harold’s gun shifted.
Agent Sloan fired once.
The bullet struck Harold’s shoulder.
He fell, screaming, and the weapon slid across the floor.
Lucas reached Margaret before she hit the ground.
Harold tried to crawl toward the pistol.
Lucas stepped on it.
Harold looked up at him.
Hatred burned in his eyes.
“Do it,” he hissed. “You know you want to.”
Lucas stared at the man who had stolen his father, his future, Evelyn, and six years of Emma’s life.
Then he stepped away.
Agent Sloan cuffed Harold.
“No,” Lucas said. “I want him awake for every verdict.”
Harold’s confidence finally disappeared.
Federal agents led him past rows of seized shipping records and arrested officers.
Margaret sat on the concrete, shaking.
“I don’t deserve forgiveness.”
Lucas looked at her.
“No.”
She began to cry.
“But you deserve a trial.”
Margaret nodded.
For the first time, she accepted that mercy would not erase consequence.
Sloan approached Lucas.
“The live broadcast worked. Warrants are being issued across the city.”
“And my companies?”
“Frozen.”
Lucas removed his luxury watch.
Without the Blackwood empire, it suddenly felt meaningless.
He kept Emma’s bracelet.
Then his phone rang.
The hospital.
May you like
Evelyn had gone into emergency surgery.
👉 Harold had finally lost, but Lucas’s victory meant nothing if the woman he had spent six years mourning did not survive the night.
