First Family (Sean King & Michelle Maxwell 4)

“I guess so,” said Sean a little uneasily, unsure of where this was going.

“I think Mr. Sam loved his daughter.”

“I think he did too,” Michelle said softly, rubbing at her left eye.

“He did,” said Gabriel. “No thinking about it.”

“And because someone hurt her, he hated them.”

“That’s probably right,” said Sean.

“But then he said you always have to let the hate go. Otherwise it’ll just tear you up inside. And it won’t let any love back in.” She looked at Gabriel when she said this. The two children held this gaze for several long moments.

“I think Mr. Sam was right, Willa. For both of us.” A tear plunked down on Gabriel’s new shirt, while tears slid down Willa’s cheeks.

Michelle turned away while Sean took several quick breaths as Willa looked up at them with her wide, sad eyes.

“So I’m not going to hate him anymore.”

Now Michelle let out a sob and took a step back, trying to hide behind Sean, whose eyes were tearing up.

“Okay, Willa,” said Sean in a hoarse voice. “That’s probably a good idea.”

She gave all three a hug and then ran back inside.

Sean, Michelle, and Gabriel just stood there for a while. Finally, Gabriel said, “She’s a good friend to have.”

“Yes she is,” said Michelle. “Yes she is.”

On Election Day, Dan Cox, bolstered by his heroism and the dramatic return of his beloved niece, won a second term to the White House by one of the largest margins of victory

ever seen in American presidential elections.

Two months after the inauguration, Martin Determann, who had worked day and night on nothing other than the story of a lifetime, published a nine-page exclusive in the Washington Post. Determann had wisely piggybacked on all the years-long work that Sam Quarry had done, but had brought to it a professional investigative journalist’s eye and, more importantly, solid proofs. His story was backed up by facts and sources so meticulously cultivated and catalogued that every media outlet in the world immediately picked up on the story and did their own investigations, uncovering even more well-hidden secrets from Dan Cox’s past.

And Determann was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.

The results of all this created a groundswell of fury across the nation against Dan and Jane Cox. So much so that on a gloomy day in April a disgraced and humbled Dan Cox addressed his fellow Americans from the Oval Office and announced that he would resign the presidency of the United States at noon the following day.

And he did.

CHAPTER 89

A MONTH AFTER COX’S resignation Sean and Michelle once more visited Atlee.

Tippi Quarry had been buried beside her mother in the graveyard of a nearby church. Based on evidence that Sean and Michelle had given as to the time of Sam Quarry’s death, his estate had passed to Ruth Ann Macon under the terms of the will that Sean had found in the basement, since Quarry’s death had preceded hers, if only by an hour or so.

And that meant that Gabriel, as her only living descendant, inherited Sam Quarry’s property. Sean was working on the legal part of all this with a lawyer licensed in Alabama. They were planning to sell the two hundred acres to a real estate developer who was willing to pay a price high enough that Gabriel would have no problem paying for college and with quite a bit left over.

After they finished meeting with the lawyer and representatives of the developer they were walking back to their rental car when a voice reached them.

“Hello?”

They turned to see a man with brown skin, shoulder-length white hair, a wide-brimmed straw hat, and a heavily wrinkled face. He was standing by where the porch to the house had once been.

“Hello, back,” said Sean. They walked over.

“Are you Fred?” said Michelle.