Chapter 5 - The Subpoena at the Door
The phone call ended with a sharp digital click, leaving Alexander standing in the cramped, damp gloom of the shelter with the weight of an empire crashing down around him.
Elena watched him closely, reading the sudden shift in his posture. "Trouble in paradise, Mr. Morgan?"
"It appears my legal department has been very thorough in covering my tracks—by making sure every illegal act I didn't know about was signed with my own digital seal," Alexander said, a grim smile touching his lips. He slipped the phone back into his pocket. "Vance wants to drag me down with him."
"That's how the world works for people like you," Elena said softly, though there was no malice in her voice now—only a tired, weathered acceptance. "You build high towers so you don't have to look at the mud. But eventually, the rain washes the mud up to your front door."
"The rain isn't going to wash this away, Elena," Alexander said, turning toward the plywood door. "It’s going to drown the people who built the levees."
He stepped back out into the mist, where Maria was waiting beside the SUV with her tablet open.
"Sir, the police jurisdiction is crossing the interstate right now," Maria said, her fingers flying across the screen. "Local precinct officers accompanied by state marshals. They have a federal warrant for your detainment pending an investigation into corporate malfeasance and municipal fraud. If we head back to the penthouse, we'll walk straight into a media circus."
"Good," Alexander said, opening the rear door of the SUV and gesturing for Tommy and Elena to come out of the shelter. "Let them set up the cameras. Because when they put the cuffs on me, I want the entire city watching what I have to say."
Maria paused, looking up at him with a mixture of shock and profound realization. "Sir... you're not going to fight the subpoena?"
"Fight it?" Alexander laughed, sliding into the leather seat beside Tommy, who clutched his bucket of soil like a shield. "Maria, for twenty years, I've fought every battle by throwing lawyers and money at the symptoms while ignoring the disease. Vance thinks he's handing me a death sentence. What he doesn't realize is that by dragging me into a public courtroom, he's giving me a megaphone that reaches every corner of this city."
He looked at Elena as she climbed into the vehicle, her frail frame settling into the plush leather with hesitant awe. Then he looked down at Tommy.
"We're going to give your mother and sister the funeral they deserve, Tommy," Alexander promised, resting a hand gently on the boy's thin shoulder. "And then, we're going to tear down the walls that put them here."
The SUV's tires spun in the mud as Maria shifted into gear, turning the vehicle back toward the interstate.
As they crested the overgrade, the gleaming skyline of downtown came into view—towers of glass and steel piercing the gray morning clouds. But as Alexander stared up at the highest spire bearing his family's name, he no longer saw a sanctuary. He saw a target.
Sirens began to wail in the distance, growing louder with every passing second as the police cruisers converged on the off-ramp ahead, cutting off the road home.
Maria gripped the steering wheel, her knuckles turning white as the flashing red and blue lights illuminated the windshield. "Sir... they're setting up a roadblock."
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Alexander didn't flinch. He leaned back against the headrest, his eyes fixed on the oncoming lights.
"Tell them to roll out the red carpet," Alexander said quietly. "The boss is coming home."
