The Officer's Runaway Wife & Secret Son novel Chapter 545

Late that month, a political earthquake rocked the upper echelons of Brighton City.

With ironclad evidence proving he illegally purchased, possessed, and abused state-controlled psychiatric drugs, Owen was formally arrested.

Before he was locked up, his family desperately tried to secure leniency for their only son. To earn a reduced sentence, they proactively surrendered a sprawling network of corruption, handing over a massive web of illicit interests.

When the authorities yanked on that thread, they pulled up far more than anyone had anticipated.

The gray-market transactions of Brighton City's underground clubs, backroom deals trading money for power, and even the shocking underground syndicate explosion from four years ago were all laid bare. Several highly respected names were dragged directly into the spotlight.

All of this happened less than ten days before the municipal summit.

On the eve of the summit, relevant departments were suddenly bombarded with a massive influx of real-name whistle-blower reports.

Letter after letter poured in. Some documents were recent, while others spanned nearly a decade.

Some of the files were literal case records that had been forcibly suppressed over the years under various pretenses.

These materials directly pointed to Eric. They detailed how, over the past decade, he had exploited his position to engage in bribery, channel illicit funds through municipal engineering approvals and land transfers, and severely violate the law by using his authority to manipulate the justice system.

None of the accusations were baseless.

The attachments included photocopies, timestamps of offshore account transfers, and audio recordings complete with written transcripts.

No one knew who had compiled them, or who had submitted them.

But anyone in the inner circle wasn't stupid. Whoever got their hands on these documents had to have been incredibly close to Eric at some point, someone Eric believed would absolutely never betray him.

The internet began steadily dropping ambiguous breadcrumbs.

#CityOfficialRelativeDrugBust#

#CountdownToBrightonOfficialDownfall#

His departure sent a shockwave through the entire venue.

Combining this with the swirling rumors of the past few days, taking someone away in front of everyone at such a critical moment meant the evidence was already airtight.

Inside the Police Department command center.

The massive screen on the wall had been broadcasting the summit live. The feed was abruptly cut the moment the staff member entered the hall, switching to a meaningless, looping video of landscapes.

The precinct fell dead silent for a few seconds.

As if on cue, a group of officers covertly glanced out of the corners of their eyes at Rhys, who was standing in front of the tactical sandbox.

Eric was his stepfather, and Margot had been brought in personally by the Police Department. It was no secret within the department how many names tied to the Johnson family were tangled in the corruption web exposed by Owen's case.

The man standing at the very center of this storm was right here.