Chapter 6 - The Unraveling
Genevieve walked slowly toward the hood of the SUV. She picked up the bent steel pin, feeling the rough, scored metal grooves beneath her fingers.
She turned to Dr. Sterling. Her voice was no longer loud or angry. It was dangerously, venomously quiet.
“Did you know about this?” she asked.
“Genevieve... please,” Sterling stuttered, taking a step back toward the door. “AeroBio assured us that the fatigue rates on those components were within acceptable medical parameters—”
“Did you know?” Genevieve repeated, her voice cracking with a mother’s sudden, devastating realization. “I gave your foundation three million dollars. I trusted you with my child’s life!”
“They offered him stock options, Mrs. Larkin,” Boone added quietly. “Check AeroBio’s public corporate disclosures in Delaware. Dr. Sterling sits on their medical advisory board. Every time he fits a patient with an AeroBio frame, he gets five percent of the gross sale.”
Dr. Sterling didn't answer. He turned on his heel and sprinted out of the garage into the pouring rain, climbing into his rental sedan and speeding away into the dark night.
Genevieve stood motionless in the center of the shop. The powerful, terrifying billionaire who had threatened to bankrupt Boone with a single phone call looked suddenly fragile, stripped of her corporate armor.
She looked at Piper, who was standing tall, straight, and painless beside a mechanic covered in grease.
Genevieve walked over to Boone. She looked down at his dirty hands, then up at his calm, honest face.
“You tried to tell me,” she whispered, tears finally breaking through her cold exterior. “Two weeks ago... under this roof... you tried to tell me.”
“You were listening to lawyers and doctors, ma'am,” Boone said gently. “People who see numbers. I fix things. I only listen to the machine.”
Genevieve dropped her head, covering her face as she wept—not for her money, or her reputation, but for the eleven years her daughter had suffered while she chased corporate miracles.
Piper stepped forward, wrapping her arms tightly around her mother’s shoulders. “It’s okay, Mom. It’s over now.”
Genevieve pulled back, looking at Boone with an intensity that burned through the remaining storm air.
“What is your name?” she asked.
“Boone Halloway.”
“Boone Halloway,” Genevieve said, wiping her tears with the back of her hand. “Tomorrow morning, my legal team is filing a multi-hundred-million-dollar class-action fraud lawsuit against AeroBio Systems and every clinic associated with them. But tonight... tonight I want to know what it will take to buy this shop, build a laboratory behind it, and put your name on every brace that leaves this state.”
May you like
Boone looked at his mother’s old wooden chair in the corner of the garage. He thought of the brown leather notebook sitting on his workbench, filled with three years of hidden dreams and quiet grief.
“This shop isn't for sale, Mrs. Larkin,” Boone said softly. “But if you want to help me build something that keeps people from hurting... I’ve got a notebook you might want to read.”
