<b>23 </b>
<b>“</b>You should finish your business and get out of here <b>as </b>soon as you can. The vige chief definitely has his eyes on you,” Josephine said, her eyes red after the vige chief and his group left.
She knew that after she took Samuel down<b>, </b>the vige chief wouldn’t let her<b>–</b>or them–off the hook.
Josephone thought her life was worthless, so she no longer cared. But she couldn’t drag Aubree and Bowen down with her.
<b>“</b><b>It’s </b><b>just </b>a vige chief, so why is everyone so afraid of him?” Aubree asked the question that had been on her mind since her very first day in the vige.
She could easily notice that everyone here looked both startled and scared whenever the vige chief was mentioned.
Josephine shook her head as <b>she </b>stammered in a trembling voice, “You guys have no idea…”
There <b>was </b>real fear in Josephine’s eyes <b>as </b>she recounted, “The current vige chief used to be a thug–<b>a </b><b>real </b>scoundrel. He was notorious in the vige for all kinds of dirty deeds. There was nothing he wouldn’t do. When he ran for vige chief, he went door <i>to </i>door, demanding everyone vote for him.
“Those who swore up and down they wouldn’t vote for him… Well, they vanished without a trace. You can’t even find a shadow of them in the vige now.
“After he took over as chief, he rounded up all the local thugs and formed this so–called ‘security team. They <b>were </b>supposedly here to keep the peace, but in reality, if anyone dares to <b>go </b>against him, that so–called security team will show up at your house and trash the ce the very same day
Tears streamed down Josephine’s face as she thought bitterly, “Those thugs are nothing but parasites. Back then, everyone in the vige looked down on them. But now, with the chief backing them, they’re riding high, doing all his dirty work. Even if someone calls the cops, none of them would ever rat out the chief. At most, they’ll spend a few days in jail, and that’s it.
‘But once they got out, the payback would be even <b>crazier</b>.
After a while, the cops just <b>got </b>sick of it and stopped bothering with these matters. The people in the vige became scared, and before long, whatever the chief said was final. He had the entire Ridgehaven Townpletely under his thumb.
The only ones with any say at all were the wealthiest folks in the vige, the Molina family. But everyone knew that back when the chief was running for office, Millie’s dad was one of his biggest supporters. After the chief got elected, the two families got real chummy, and they were totally in cahoots.‘
“If the folks here can’t do anything, don’t the people above step in either?” Aubree asked.
Josephine let out a bitterugh in response, “All these years, the chief’s made a ton of money. He’s no fool. He has been lining the pockets of those above him for ages. If anything significant is about to happen, he receives a warning in advance. They would also help him <b>cover </b>up all the small
stuff.
“I heard the county head and the chief are pretty tight.”
They were just ordinary people. Dealing with the chief alone was already more than enough trouble for them. Adding the county head into the mix turned it into a nightmare. That’s why, for all these years, Ridgehaven Town fiercely resisted anyone trying to bring about change, whether they were businessmen or government officials, all because the chief had said so.
If they didn’t <i>do </i>what the chief wanted, once those outsiders left, they’d be the ones to pay the price.
Aubree nced back at Bowen, and after getting a nod from him, she turned to Josephine and asked, “Miss Walls, do you know anything about the whole thing with Ridgehaven Town being rebuilt?
“If you’re all so afraid of the chief, then why not just agree to the relocation? Wouldn’t that mean you could finally leave Ridgehaven Town?
“Taking the money and leaving this ce has to be better than being under his control forever, right?”
While this made sense…
Josephine sighed, “I can’t speak for anyone else, but the security team came to me and told me not to sign the agreement yet. They said if I held off, I’d get more money down the line. Honestly, I don’t care about the money–I want to get out of this vige with my kid, Mattias, as soon as possible. But you can probably guess, I’m terrified of the chief, so I could only go along with what they said.
“As for the others, I have no idea if they were told the same thing or not.”
“Maybe the chief really just wants to get more money, or maybe he doesn’t want to lose his position as chief.”