Chapter 10
Wade talked because Silas stopped protecting him.
Predictable.
The marina fire had been Wade’s escalation.
Silas admitted ordering intimidation.
Wade locked Elena in the storage office.
Then set fire near the entrance because he wanted her terrified enough to disappear voluntarily after he freed her.
The fire spread faster.
He panicked.
Elena escaped through a side window.
Silas found her before my search teams.
That was the point where everyone could have stopped.
Instead, Silas chose concealment.
Wade followed.
Anthony helped.
“How long did you think it would last?” I asked Wade.
“A few days.”
Almost every long horror begins with temporary.
“Then?”
“She wouldn’t tell us what she knew.”
“What did she know?”
He looked confused.
Interesting.
“You didn’t know?”
“No.”
Silas had not told Wade everything either.
Compartmentalization again.
Elena knew which captains Silas approached and how he planned to use Micah’s future name.
But she also knew something else.
Silas had been paying for Micah’s private boxing trainers.
At first, that sounded harmless.
Then Elena explained.
“He wanted Micah surrounded by men loyal to him.”
Not just sport.
Network.
Coach.
Driver.
Security.
Mentors.
Build loyalty before the boy recognized it as politics.
Micah’s boxing life had been partly curated.
That hurt him when I told him.
“So my coach is his?”
“Coach Reynolds knew nothing about the faction.”
Good.
Separate truth.
“But Silas paid?”
“Yes.”
Micah looked sick.
Then angry.
“I still won those fights.”
I stared.
“Yes.”
Immediate.
“Those are yours.”
Important.
Manipulation around an achievement does not erase the achievement.
Silas tried to own the environment.
May you like
He did not own Micah’s work.
That distinction helped.
