Epilogue

Ade and Ericka sat on the couch, François fast asleep in the portable crib upstairs. I sat on the floor, my back to the TV because I’d already heard the news a thousand times: the Hoffer-Rey scandal – blackmail and extortion and sex crimes oh my. Edmund’s embezzlement case wasn’t going so well for the defense. And while Edmund had already made sure to cover his own ass ten years ago, the rumors of his dealings with shady criminal organizations and sex trafficking were enough to ruin his life forever. Like father, like son.

But the Davis family had chosen not to worry about that for the time being. Though we’d had our fair share of reporters digging through our trash, in the four weeks that had gone by, the press had become less and less interested in the Brooklyn family who lived in their narrow yellow house, a couple of narrow yellow houses down from a Chinese restaurant.

Dad dropped a newspaper down on the table, pointing at the news that’d been shoved into a corner of the page, all buried in the scandal.

“‘Hyde Hedley, son of Ralph Hedley and reinstated senior executive of Hedley Publications starts an International Counseling Program for Survivors of Swan Slavery’,” Ericka read, leaning over carefully so as not to spill her hot chocolate.

Crossing her legs, Ade plucked the mug out of Ericka’s hands and sipped the chocolate generously. “Well, he did say he was going to do something substantial with all that cash.”