Chapter 4 - The Man Who Lost His Kingdom
The city called it the Brennan Collapse.
News channels ran photographs of Cormac outside the federal courthouse. Reporters described him as a crime boss turning against his own network. Some called him a traitor. Others called him a criminal trying to save himself.
Both were partly true.
Cormac surrendered records that exposed Declan’s operation, corrupt officials, shipping executives, and men who had benefited from the Brennan name for decades.
He did not escape consequences.
His companies were audited.
Properties were seized.
Accounts were frozen.
Men who once called him boss stopped returning calls.
But Cormac did not fight the investigation.
He gave statements.
He accepted charges related to businesses he had controlled, even when Declan had done the worst of the crimes.
Faye watched from a distance.
She did not become his fiancée.
She did not move into his world.
She went back to work.
At first, the bakery.
Then a small accounting firm that helped families challenge predatory debts and fraudulent loans.
Nora recovered slowly. She left Harborline Records and began taking classes again. Elsie returned to drawing stars on Faye’s ceiling.
One evening, months after the warehouse, Faye found Cormac sitting outside the old bakery.
He wore no expensive suit.
No bodyguards waited nearby.
He looked tired.
“You should not be here,” she said.
“I know.”
“Then why are you?”
He held out a small paper bag.
Inside was a package of glow-in-the-dark stars.
Faye stared at them.
“You remembered.”
“I woke up under them.”
She almost smiled.
Cormac looked down at his hands.
“I came to return something.”
He placed the silver ring on the bench between them.
Faye did not touch it.
“That ring does not mean anything,” she said.
“It meant something to my father.”
“I am not your father.”
“No,” Cormac said. “And that is why I am giving it back.”
She looked at him.
“I do not want a drunken promise.”
“You should not.”
“I do not want protection that turns into control.”
“It will not.”
“You cannot promise that.”
May you like
Cormac met her gaze.
“No,” he said. “But I can prove it.”
