Chapter 6 - THIRTY-SIX HOURS
"How long?"
Caleb's voice barely sounded human.
Graham looked at the visitor badge.
"Caleb."
"How long was my son alive?"
Juny sat among the wreckage holding her mother's coat.
Workers had backed away.
Nobody wanted to be near the answer.
Graham swallowed.
"Thirty-six hours."
Caleb hit him.
It wasn't planned.
His fist struck Graham's mouth hard enough to send the older man sideways.
The entire scrapyard went silent.
Graham wiped blood from his lip.
He did not hit back.
Juny stood.
"Don't."
Caleb turned.
She looked frightened now.
Not of Graham.
Of him.
Shame moved through Caleb like ice.
He lowered his hands.
"You're right."
Graham straightened.
"He deserved to know," Juny said.
"I know," Caleb replied.
She shook her head.
"I mean you."
That almost undid him.
Caleb looked at Graham.
"Tell me everything."
Graham sat on the edge of a crushed bumper.
"When Luke was brought to Greyhore Memorial, doctors didn't think he'd survive the night."
"You called me in Singapore."
"Yes."
"You told me he died."
"Your father told me to."
Caleb stared.
Arthur Rowan had been dead six years.
In Caleb's memory, his father had become cleaner with time.
Hard, certainly.
Demanding.
But principled.
The man who taught Caleb that a Rowan kept his word.
"You expect me to believe my father did this?"
"I expect nothing."
Graham rubbed his split lip.
"Luke woke around midnight. Mara was there. He told a police officer the fire started near the drums. He said Halberd had been dumping solvents and somebody had forged intake records."
"Then why isn't that in the investigation?"
"Because the officer's preliminary notes disappeared before the official report."
Caleb's stomach turned.
"Who made them disappear?"
"I don't know."
"Liar."
"I don't."
Juny hugged the red coat tighter.
"Did Grandpa Arthur know about me?"
The word Grandpa stopped both men.
Caleb looked at her.
Juny immediately looked embarrassed.
"I mean his dad."
Graham answered carefully.
"He knew Mara was pregnant."
Caleb closed his eyes.
Another blow.
His father knew.
Graham knew.
Luke knew.
Mara knew.
Caleb had somehow been the last person in his own family to know his family existed.
"Why didn't Luke call me himself?"
"He tried."
Caleb looked up.
"Hospital records should show—"
"He didn't have a phone."
Graham shook his head.
"He asked a nurse to contact your office. The call went through corporate security. Arthur's staff intercepted it."
Caleb looked toward the city skyline.
He remembered those thirty-six hours.
He remembered standing inside a Singapore hotel room while rain covered the windows.
He remembered Graham telling him Luke was gone.
He remembered calling his father.
Arthur had said, Be strong. There will be time for grief when you come home.
There had been time.
Luke had still been breathing.
"Did you know he was conscious?"
Graham's eyes filled.
Not dramatically.
Just enough.
"Yes."
Caleb stared at him.
"Why?"
Graham looked down.
"Because Luke said the company would be responsible."
Caleb wanted to hit him again.
He didn't.
"Arthur said if investigators connected the dumping to Rowan Metal, banks would freeze our credit by morning. Eleven thousand people could lose their jobs."
"So you protected the company."
"I protected what I thought was everyone."
"Except Luke."
Graham nodded once.
"Except Luke."
"And Mara."
"Yes."
"And Juny."
Graham looked at the child.
"Yes."
Juny said nothing.
That silence was worse than accusation.
A white county vehicle turned through the gate.
Graham glanced toward it.
Caleb's jaw tightened.
"Who called them?"
"The site manager," Graham said. "After the shelter was damaged."
A woman in her forties stepped out.
Practical shoes.
Navy coat.
Identification badge.
She approached slowly.
"I'm Tessa Morgan with County Child Services."
Juny instantly moved behind the blue van.
Caleb stepped between Tessa and the hiding place.
"She isn't being dragged anywhere."
Tessa looked unimpressed.
"Good morning to you too."
"She's my granddaughter."
Juny peeked around the van.
Tessa looked at her, then at Caleb.
"Is that documented?"
Caleb's anger met a wall.
"No."
"Then right now you're an unrelated adult making a claim about an unsheltered minor."
"Her father was my son."
"Again, documented?"
Caleb looked at the watch.
Photographs.
Notebook.
Nothing official.
Tessa's voice softened.
"Mr. Rowan, I know who you are. That doesn't change what I have to do."
Juny whispered, "I'm not going."
Tessa crouched several feet away.
"I'm not here to punish you."
"They all say that."
Tessa absorbed it.
"Okay."
No argument.
No false promise.
That earned Juny's attention.
"The yard isn't safe," Tessa continued. "Somebody almost demolished your shelter."
Juny looked at Graham.
He winced.
Tessa said, "I need to get you somewhere warm while adults figure this out."
"I can take her home," Caleb said.
"You can apply for emergency kinship placement."
"How long?"
"That's not the first question."
"What is?"
"Whether she wants to go with you."
Caleb looked at Juny.
Until that moment, it had not occurred to him that she might say no.
Juny held Mara's coat.
"You didn't believe my mom."
The words were quiet.
Caleb felt them anyway.
"I never heard her."
"You believed everybody else."
"I did."
"You thought my dad was stupid."
Caleb could not deny it.
"Yes."
Her chin trembled once.
"Then why should I live with you?"
Caleb had negotiated acquisitions in rooms full of hostile men.
He had testified before Congress.
He had rebuilt a company after the worst financial year of his life.
Nothing had prepared him for that question.
"I don't have a good reason," he said.
Juny seemed surprised.
Caleb continued.
"But I can give you one eventually."
Tessa watched him closely.
"How?"
Juny asked.
Caleb looked across Ashwick.
At the demolition signs.
At Luke's notebook.
At the broken chimes.
Then he took the project plans from Graham's hands.
He tore them in half.
Graham stared.
"Caleb."
"No demolition."
"You can't cancel a project this size standing in a scrapyard."
"Watch me."
"The lenders—"
"Can call me."
"The city—"
"Can call me."
"This will cost hundreds of millions."
Caleb looked at Juny.
"My family has spent twelve years paying for decisions made to protect money."
He dropped the torn plans into the dirt.
"I'm done sending the bill to them."
Juny looked at him for a long moment.
Then she reached into the red coat's other pocket.
"There was something else."
She pulled out a narrow silver chain.
A small compass hung from it.
Caleb recognized it immediately.
The Rowan family crest was engraved on the back.
His mother had given that necklace to Luke when he turned eighteen.
Caleb opened the compass.
Inside the lid, a family motto had been etched in tiny letters.
NEVER LEAVE YOUR OWN OUTSIDE.
Beneath the words was something newer.
Luke's handwriting.
MARA + JUNY.
Caleb looked at the child.
Juny's eyes filled.
"He knew my name," she whispered.
Before Caleb could answer, Graham stared toward the necklace.
"No."
Caleb looked at him.
"What?"
Graham stepped closer.
"Turn it over."
Caleb did.
Near the hinge was a tiny symbol scratched into the silver.
May you like
The same symbol Luke had drawn beside the missing pages in his notebook.
Graham whispered, "There's another box."
