My Town Exiles One Family Every Year To Stay “Perfect.” My Father Just Got A Promotion, And Now We Are Standing At The Border With Nothing. But Someone Is Waiting For Us In The Dark.

Moments of Normalcy

Thea noticed I was getting obsessed with the documentation work. I spent every free hour at the computer entering data and cross-referencing testimony. She showed up at the community center one afternoon and physically dragged me away from the desk. She said I needed to be a normal teenager for a few hours instead of drowning in other people’s trauma.

We drove to a nearby town neither of us had visited before. Thea picked a random movie playing at the theater, and we bought tickets without even checking what it was about. For 2 hours, I forgot about exile and corruption and justice. The movie was stupid and funny and completely meaningless.

Afterward, we walked around the town looking in shop windows and eating ice cream. Thea talked about normal things like music and books and what she wanted to study in college. Being away from the exile community and the FBI case felt strange but good.

We drove back as the sun was setting, and Thea pulled into an empty parking lot. She turned to me and said she was glad we met, even though the circumstances were terrible. I agreed and said she made everything more bearable. She leaned over and kissed me, and it was the first genuinely good thing that happened since our exile.

I was terrified of caring about someone again after watching my girlfriend turn away so easily, but Thea made it feel worth the risk because she understood loss in ways that made her more loyal, not less. We sat in the car talking until it got dark, and she drove me back to the mobile home. I went inside feeling lighter than I had in weeks.

Reclaiming Identity

My father slowly started emerging from his depression enough to attend community meetings. He didn’t talk much at first, just sat in the back and listened, but gradually he started contributing small ideas about the exile town’s development. He suggested improvements to the water system and better organization for the community garden.

Eli encouraged him and asked for his input on other projects. My father wasn’t the confident man he was before our exile, but he was finding small ways to participate and rebuild his sense of purpose. I watched him talk with other exiled men about construction plans and saw tiny sparks of the person he used to be.

One evening, Eli pulled me aside and said my father was doing better than many exiled men who never recovered from losing their provider role and social status. He said some men couldn’t handle the loss of identity and just gave up. My father was fighting his way back slowly, and that took real strength. I told Eli I was proud of him even though our relationship was still strained. Eli said healing took time for everyone and I shouldn’t expect too much too fast. My father and I still barely talked, but watching him engage with the community again gave me hope we might eventually repair what got broken.

The Announcement

Three months after our exile, Sebastian held another meeting at the community center. The room filled quickly because everyone knew this was important. Sebastian stood at the front with Rosa beside him and announced the FBI was ready to move forward with the case. They would be making arrests within the next few weeks.

The exile community erupted in cautious celebration. People hugged and cried, and some just sat in stunned silence. This was what we’d been working toward for years, but everyone was afraid to hope too much in case something went wrong.

Rosa stood up and warned us that legal cases were unpredictable and we needed to prepare for a long fight. The founding families would hire expensive lawyers and try every tactic to avoid consequences. She said we should expect the process to take months or even years, but the evidence was overwhelming and the federal prosecutors were confident.

Sebastian explained the charges included racketeering, fraud, theft, and manslaughter. Each founding family leader faced decades in prison if convicted.

Wallace asked when the arrests would happen, and Sebastian said he couldn’t give exact dates for security reasons. My father asked what would happen to the old town, and Sebastian said new leadership would have to be established. The current system would be dismantled completely.

I sat there trying to process that the people who destroyed us would actually face real consequences. It didn’t feel real yet, but it was happening.