Sand Castles and Fallen Fortunes

De: Darlene Zagata

Narrado por: Virtual Voice

Fifteen Years Ago

The beach house at Halcyon Bay stood empty that night, its windows dark except for one room on the second floor. Inside, four men sat around a mahogany table, their faces illuminated by a single lamp.

"We all agree, then," Michael Hale said, his voice steady despite the tremor in his hands. "This is the only way forward."

Richard Mercer nodded slowly. "The alternative is unthinkable."

"The alternative is prison," Thomas Langford corrected, his words clipped. "For all of us."

Vincent Cross remained silent, staring at the documents spread before them. Numbers. Signatures. A single photograph, face-down on the polished wood.

"What about Dunn?" Michael asked. "He hasn't answered."

"He will," Richard assured him. "He has as much to lose as we do."

Vincent finally spoke, his voice barely above a whisper. "And the boy?"

The four men exchanged glances. Outside, waves crashed against the shore with rhythmic inevitability.

"There was no boy," Thomas said firmly. "There was an accident. Nothing more."

Michael reached forward and flipped the photograph face-down again, though no one had turned it over. His hand shook harder now.

"We protect our families," he said. "Whatever it takes. That's what we agreed when we started this."

The men signed. One by one, their names appeared on documents that would bind them together for years to come—a partnership sealed not in trust, but in shared guilt.

When they left that night, they locked the beach house and didn't return for three years.

The ocean kept their secrets.

Until it didn't.