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.

Telling the World

Two days later, a reporter from a regional news station came to the exile community. Eli had arranged for several people to be interviewed, including me, Wallace, and a few others. The reporter was a woman in her 30s who seemed genuinely concerned about our story. She set up cameras in the community center and interviewed Wallace first. I waited my turn feeling more nervous than I’d felt during the FBI deposition.

When it was my turn, the reporter asked me to sit down and just tell my story naturally. She started by asking when I first noticed something was wrong with the exile system. I took a deep breath and told her about being 13 when my best friend’s family got exiled. I described watching from my window as he loaded garbage bags into their van and how I ducked below the window when he waved goodbye because I was too scared.

The reporter’s expression changed and she asked why I was scared. I explained that helping exiled families meant your own family would be chosen next. I told her about the Hendersons and John’s family and how I started tracking which families got exiled when I was 17. I explained that I noticed the founding families never appeared on the list despite obvious problems.

The reporter asked specific questions about how the voting system worked, and I described the locked ballot box and private vote counting with no verification. I talked about my father’s promotion and our exile 3 months later. The reporter looked angry by the end of the interview. She thanked me and said this was important journalism.

That evening, the story aired on the regional news. I watched myself on TV describing the corruption, and it felt strange seeing my face and hearing my voice. The reporter had edited it well, using my testimony alongside Wallace’s and others to show the pattern of abuse.

Rodrigo texted me saying, “I did great. My parents looked proud.”

Thea hugged me and said I was brave for speaking up.

The National Stage

The next morning, the story had spread to other news outlets. The old town was all over the news with reporters interviewing residents and town council members. I watched the coverage online and felt angry.

Some residents were claiming they never knew about the rigged votes, that they trusted the system. One woman said she was shocked to learn the founding families had been manipulating everything. I wanted to scream at the screen because that was a lie. Everyone knew. They saw families get exiled for competing with founding family businesses. They watched people beg and get dragged away. They just didn’t care as long as it wasn’t their family.

The remaining town council members were scrambling to distance themselves from the founding families. One council member said in an interview that he had concerns about the exile system but felt powerless to change it. Another said the founding families operated independently and the council had no oversight. It was all deflection and excuses.

The reporter asked why the council never investigated the pattern of founding families never being exiled. The council member stammered and said he never noticed that pattern. I threw my phone across the room. Thea picked it up and handed it back to me. She said watching them lie was infuriating, but we had the truth on our side. The evidence was overwhelming, and the whole country was watching now.

Wallace’s interview aired that afternoon on national news. He sat in front of the camera and talked about his wife with raw emotion that made my chest hurt. He explained how she had cancer and needed treatment only available at the local hospital. He described their exile and how they ended up three states away with no insurance and no money. He said his wife died 2 weeks later in a charity ward because the exile system stripped them of everything.

The reporter asked what he would say to the founding families. Wallace looked directly at the camera.

“They murdered his wife through systematic cruelty disguised as community standards,” Wallace said. “Exile wasn’t just corruption; it was manslaughter.”

He said he hoped they spent the rest of their lives in prison thinking about all the people they destroyed. The interview went viral. News outlets across the country picked it up. Suddenly the exile system wasn’t just a local corruption story; it was a national scandal about systematic abuse and deadly consequences.

The founding family’s lawyers tried to respond by saying the exile system was legal and they weren’t responsible for what happened after families left town. But Wallace’s testimony was devastating, and nobody was buying their excuses.

I watched Wallace on TV and saw a man who had turned his worst loss into the strongest weapon for justice. He channeled all his grief and rage into making sure everyone understood what the founding families had done. I felt proud to know him and grateful he was fighting for all of us.