Noah took in a slow, calming breath. “Three things went through my head. The first one is a bit obvious because anyone in an investigative journalist’s shoes would’ve wondered how I could have missed that. How could my father, the man who’d showed up to every hockey game I played and cheered proudly for me, could’ve killed so many women.” Noah ran a hand across his head. Something he’d never done on a show. His makeup and hair artist was probably going nuts right about now. “The second thing was, and this one tortured me for a long time, was wondering if you’d you ever hurt my mother. My aunt. My cousins.”
“I never,” Matias said.
“So, I’ve been told.” Noah let his father have that one tiny, shining truth in the sea of dark ones. “But what I concentrated so fiercely on in the courtroom was how to become invisible. How do I stop having to be your son? And let me tell you, it was a hard thought. I struggled with it because, to me, you were like any other dad. Only now, I was going to have to tell people you were a killer, and I just wanted to be someone else. I tried for nearly three years to be Angel. On both coasts. And it sucked.”
“You’re still Angel. You still have my blood running through those veins of yours.”
“True.” Noah focused on his father as if he was speaking only to him, and the audience no longer existed. “But you had nothing to do with the man I became. I might not have changed my name right away, but Angel died in that courtroom.” Noah hadn’t realized how freeing it would be to say those words. His chest loosened, and he suddenly felt unburdened. “Let’s stop screwing around,” he said. “You know what you did. You used that young woman over there.” He jerked his thumb over his shoulder.
“Who? Ziggy?”
“Nice try.” Noah let out a short, humorless laugh. “My researcher. The one who brought in my presents. The one who’s been—” He cut himself off, not because he didn’t have the words, but because he didn’t need them. Everyone in the room already understood. “I don’t have a problem laying it all out,” he said instead. “This show has been unlike anything I’ve ever done.”
Matias leaned back, folding his arms, trying for control again. “I think you’ve lost your touch, kid.”
“That’s too bad,” Noah said, “because your friend—the woman you’ve been promising to take care of for months, the one putting money in your commissary—she’s going to serve time.”
“What?” Claire’s voice broke sharp and high. “I didn’t do anything wrong. All I did was deliver a few things. Give away some money.” She pointed straight at Matias, her hand shaking now. “He arranged all of it. It was him. He?—”
“I’d be quiet if I were you,” Matias snapped, pushing to his feet. “I don’t know what she’s talking about. I didn’t hire anyone. If this is true, she did it on her own. All of it.”
Noah’s hands tightened on the arms of his chair, ready to move, but the guards were already stepping in, faster than he could react.
Everything broke loose at once.
The cameramen moved closer, chasing the chaos rather than pulling back from it. The door opened, and suddenly the room filled—warden, Jag, detectives, bodies crowding a space that had felt too empty seconds ago.
“Liar!” Claire shouted. “How could you, Matias? You promised me this would work. That I’d get my break. You said I’d be on camera.”
“You are,” Ziggy said quietly.
That landed harder than the yelling.
Noah flashed the cut signal toward the cameramen.
They ignored him.
Of course they did. It was good fucking television.
Four minutes left.
Four minutes of this going out live.
There was no fixing that now.
Claire lunged—she went straight for Matias, her hands reaching for his throat. “I did everything you asked,” she screamed. “I risked my job for you. I beat someone for you?—”
Detective Amy grabbed her, wrenching her back before she could get a grip.
The guards had Matias pinned and cuffed in seconds.
“And that’s a wrap,” one of the cameramen said, breathless, like he’d just witnessed something he knew he’d be replaying for years.
Noah crossed the room in three quick strides, caught Ziggy’s hand, and pulled her with him into the control room before anyone could stop them. “Are you okay?”
“I think I’m in shock,” she said, her voice quieter now, like the adrenaline hadn’t caught up yet. “Did that really just happen? On live TV?”
“It did.” Noah leaned back against the wall, the weight of it finally catching up in his chest. “What the hell was I thinking?”