Arc 5: Victory and Roots
Page 77
The Right Call
After Dev's grandmother brought the entire room to tears with her testimony, Gerald Hooper stood up. Nobody expected it. The developer who had planned to build towers that would shadow the garden — the man in the too-tight grey suit who had looked uncomfortable at every turn — walked to the microphone. Chloe gripped her pencil. Detective Park leaned over and whispered that it was a trap. But Gerald didn't make a speech about generosity or doing the right thing. He simply said that Bluebell Properties would use a different site. No flourish. No applause-bait. Just the fact, delivered plainly. The room went quiet. Then the whispers started. Gerald stepped back from the podium, stiff-shouldered, looking neither proud nor pleased — just resolved. Chloe wrote it down in her notebook, every word. Sometimes the most extraordinary thing a person can do is simply change their mind.