I Have Five Kick-Ass Brothers – Episode 17
Noah made one call. He did not raise his voice or announce a title; he simply gave his name and the inspector’s badge number. Within seconds, the man’s phone began ringing. His confidence drained as a senior official ordered him to suspend the arrest until the evidence was independently reviewed.
Raina stared at her eldest brother. Construction workers did not normally command city departments with a sentence. Noah offered no explanation, concentrating instead on placing himself between her and the handcuffs.
The inspector retreated behind procedure, claiming he had only followed instructions. Joshua asked whose instructions those were. The man refused to answer, but sweat gathered at his temples when Joshua mentioned obstruction of an arson investigation.
Theo requested the solvent receipt and saw that the vendor identification number belonged to a company dissolved two years earlier. The forgery was careless beneath its professional formatting. Someone had relied on intimidation to prevent anyone from looking closely.
Raina should have felt relieved. Instead, suspicion spread through her as she watched Noah and Theo dismantle the accusation with resources no ordinary family could access. “Who are you people?” she asked softly.
Her brothers fell silent. Henry began a joke, then abandoned it when he saw her face. Raina had demanded no more secrets, and the Lincolns were standing inside the largest one of all.
Mrs. Lincoln asked her to wait until they returned home. The plea sounded loving, but it was still a delay. Raina stepped away from the arm her mother offered. “Every family keeps deciding when I’m ready for my own life.”
Theo wanted to intervene, yet this truth belonged to the Lincolns. He turned his attention to clearing her name while Noah struggled with the consequences of their test. Protecting Raina had become the excuse for the very deception now hurting her.
At city offices the next morning, the false receipt collapsed under examination. Security footage from the vendor’s listed address showed no business operating there. Raina was released from suspicion, but the stand remained closed while the arson investigation continued.
The hospitalized worker recovered quickly and confirmed Raina had warned everyone away before entering the trailer herself. His testimony transformed the official record: rather than causing the danger, she had helped clear the site and risked herself only after believing someone remained inside.
Outside, reporters waited. News of a former Smith daughter operating an illegal stand had leaked before her name was cleared. Microphones surrounded Raina as strangers demanded to know whether poverty had driven her to reckless business practices.
Coco had shaped the narrative well. Anonymous posts described Raina as a spoiled heiress playing at hardship, then endangering real workers. They omitted the switch, the successful safety inspection, and every piece of evidence suggesting arson.
Raina faced the cameras instead of hiding. She admitted the stand was small and imperfect, but denied buying solvent or setting the fire. “Someone tried to frighten me into giving up. I survived losing one home. I will survive losing a table and a tent.”
Her composure shifted the crowd. Workers gathered behind her, confirming she had fed those without money and treated them with dignity. Public sympathy began moving faster than the smear campaign.
Theo stepped beside her and announced that Jones Group would fund an independent investigation. He did not call her his savior or speak of marriage. He supported her as Raina, precisely as she had asked.
Noah watched with mixed gratitude and regret. When a reporter demanded to know why a laborer had access to government officials, the question he feared finally arrived. Cameras turned toward him.
He could lie again or expose the family before Raina chose to hear it. Noah said only that he had contacts from previous work, a weak answer that deepened her hurt. Raina walked away from the press conference without waiting for him.
Coco viewed the footage from the Smith mansion and threw her phone across the room. The fire had made Raina more sympathetic, while Theo’s public support tied their names together. Every attack seemed to give her rival another protector.
Then an unknown caller contacted Coco. The voice warned that her failed plan had attracted too much attention and demanded payment for silence. Coco realized the hired employee near the river had not disappeared; he had decided to blackmail her.
He sent a photograph proving he possessed the original clinic page and security footage from the arson. Unless Coco delivered half a million dollars by midnight, he would give both to Theo—and the evidence would expose her before Raina learned the Lincolns’ secret.
