Chapter 51 

Caleb’s mind raced as he connected the dots. Some average Joe from Glovia? He knew that Glovia, a bustling economic hub, wasn’t a place for the average Joe; even those who seemed ordinary‘ there could wield considerable clout elsewhere. He had always been more focused on the shady connections tied to Aron, dismissing the significance of the last name “Quinn.” 

Only now did he realize that there had been a Quinn family in Clovia back then. However, it was destroyed more than a decade ago. 

David’s insider knowledge matched up with Caleb’s suspicions. “Aron’s from Clovia’s South District, where the Quinn family were big shots until they got hit hard” 

Glovia, for all its shining skyline, was rife with power plays and chans battling in the shadows. There were a few notables: the Thomas family and Mercer family, top dogs in their game; the Johnson family, always a step behind; and the Quinn family, the up–and–comers. And lurking around, members of the Harper family stirred the pot, the political scene a raging river of alliances and backstabs. 

For the four heavy hitters, their bread and butter were the deals done in the dark–weapons, contraband, everything–all while fronting as Clovia’s economic saviors. 

In the midst of this, every criminal, no matter how hardened, nursed a secret yearning for redemption, for a life without looking over their shoulder. 

Twenty years ago, as a boy of only ten, Caleb was summoned by his father, Arthur Mercer, into the secretive world of family business and power brokering. Back then, a tumultuous wave was sweeping through the political elite, with the authorities keen on purging the malignant forces within their ranks. 

Arthur saw the storm coming before the first raindrop fell–crackdown on crime families like theirs was on the horizon. While Arthur steered their ship toward cleaner tides, sealing their alibis, the other families were left in the dust, none more so than the Quinn family. 

The other families didn’t have the heart to ease up on the Quinn family, not when there was something in it for them. The four big families of Clovia came together for a sit–down about a juicy deal that had landed in their lap. They played it like they were doing the Quinn family a solid, handing the reins of the deal over to them. But it was all a setup. 

Right as the deal was going down, the cops swooped in. They snagged everyone in one fell swoop, and into the clink they went. The word was they were looking to make an example out of someone big, so they clamped down on the news about the Quinn family’s fall from grace. Just a few small fries got nabbed after that, and like a disappearing act, the whole mess just kind of faded out of the picture, no big scandal, no nothing. 

The Quinn family were backed into a corner, but they weren’t about to roll over. They were Clovia heavyweights, after all. one of the Big Fours They hatched a plan to bounce back, laying low in Clovia’s South District to regroup. 

All seemed to settle down, with Clovia’s criminal landscape shifting from four ruling families to just three. The remaining big players were looking to go clean, but with the law breathing down their necks, it was like trying to walk straight in a 

hurricane. 

Every family was on edge, playing a high–stakes game of chicken. It was all or nothing–either they’d all go down together or someone was going to take the fall. 

But the Quinn family didn’t want to bow out, trading power plays for picket fences. And then, they were targeted again. The athurity was not going to let them go. 

When the cops finally came knocking, ready to drag the Quinn family out in handcuffs, they found the place deserted–the whole Quinn family had vanished into thin air, 

14