“I’m taking you home, Emily,” I said.

She shook her head, her breath catching in her throat.

“You don’t understand,” she said.

“It’s not just about Ryan hitting me.”

“It doesn’t matter what it is,” I said, wiping a tear from her cheek.

“We are leaving this place.”

“No, Dad, listen to me,” she insisted, gripping my forearms with surprising strength.

“They won’t let us leave Fairmont alive if they know what I have.”

She wiped her nose with the back of her sleeve.

“I found the financial files, Dad.”

“The ones Charles keeps in his private wall safe in the study.”

I looked at her, keeping my face calm.

“What files, Emily?”

“The federal contracts for the new reservoir dam,” she said.

She spoke rapidly, her words tripping over each other.

“The Whitmore Group is billing the government for premium steel and concrete.”

“But they’re buying cheap, rejected materials from overseas.”

“They’ve pocketed over twelve million dollars on this project alone.”

“And the dam is structurally unsafe, Dad.”

“If it fills to capacity in the spring, it will fail.”

“The entire valley below will be flooded.”