Chapter 8 - The Falling Empires
I reached into my suit jacket and pulled out a thumb drive, plugging it directly into the podium’s multimedia console.
Instantly, the massive thirty-foot screen behind the stage shifted. The banner for Crestview vanished, replaced by high-definition scans of internal documents, offshore bank statements, altered safety reports, and the original unedited coroner’s report for Sawyer Fields.
The room erupted into shouts of utter disbelief.
“This is Sawyer Fields,” I said, pointing to a photograph of a smiling ten-year-old boy that appeared on the screen. “He was my son. Five years ago, he died on a Crestview construction site that had twenty-four unaddressed safety violations—violations that were ignored so Gilbert Pharma could save four million dollars in expansion costs.”
Olivia stepped forward, her face contorted in rage. “He’s lying! He’s insane! Turn the screens off! Turn them off right now!”
The technical crew didn't touch a button; two federal agents were already standing in the control booth.
“My mother, Katie Carpenter, and my wife, Olivia Gilbert,” I continued loudly over the chaos, “bribed building inspectors, falsified medical records, and threatened the boy’s mother—Nellie Fields—after crushing her leg under a steel beam.”
I turned to look at Olivia.
“And for the last ten years, Gilbert Pharma has been funneling unapproved clinical trial results through Crestview Clinic, using homeless patients as unconsenting test subjects—a scheme overseen personally by Olivia and my mother.”
The Assistant State Attorney General stepped up to the stage, pulling official arrest warrants from his coat.
“Katie Carpenter and Olivia Gilbert,” the Attorney General announced into the microphone. “You are under arrest for federal wire fraud, corporate manslaughter, illegal human experimentation, and obstruction of justice.”
The crowd gasped as uniformed state troopers walked onto the stage, pulling silver handcuffs from their belts.
Katie backed away, her hands flying to her pearl necklace. “No! You can’t arrest me! I am Katie Carpenter! I built this city!”
“You built it on the bones of a child, Mother,” I said coldly as the troopers grabbed her arms, pinning her hands behind her back.
Olivia tried to run toward the backstage exit, but two female officers tackled her to the ground, forcing her arms behind her back as she screamed profanities at me.
“ALISTAIR! YOU RUINED US!” Olivia shrieked, her face pressed against the carpet as handcuffs locked around her wrists. “YOU RUINED EVERYTHING!”
“No, Olivia,” I said, standing beside Nellie as the crowd recorded every second of their arrest on their phones. “I just brought the light into your dark room.”
As my mother and wife were led away in handcuffs through a gauntlet of flashing cameras and shouting reporters, I walked over to the podium microphone one last time.
“Effective immediately,” I announced, “I have surrendered my medical license and transferred my entire eighty-million-dollar fortune, along with all assets of the Carpenter Estate, into an irrevocable trust.”
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I looked at Nellie, who was watching me with tears shining in her eyes.
“The trust will be managed entirely by Nellie Fields. Every cent will go toward providing free medical care, housing, and prosthetics for the homeless community of Minnesota.”
