CHAPTER 174
The Academy Awards ceremony was supposed to be a triumph - recognition for our documentary about the international fight against human trafficking, legitimacy for the work we'd dedicated our lives to, and a platform to reach millions of people with our message.
Instead, I sat in the Beverly Hills hotel suite watching the red carpet coverage while our security team monitored threat assessments that had been escalating for weeks.
"Mama, why can't we go to the pretty party?" six-year-old Addison asked, pressing her face against the bulletproof windows to watch the limousines arriving at the Dolby Theatre below.
"Because sometimes the pretty parties aren't safe for children," I said, bouncing four-month-old Elena while keeping one eye on the security monitors that showed armed teams positioned around our hotel.
"Is someone trying to hurt us?"
"Some people don't like the work that Mama and the uncles do," Jax answered carefully. "So we have to be extra careful when lots of people are watching."
It was the sanitized version of the truth. The reality was that three separate criminal organizations had put bounties on our heads in the weeks since the documentary's nomination was announced. Our faces were about to be broadcast to a global audience of over thirty million people, making us the most visible targets in the anti-trafficking community.
"Look, Mama's on TV!" four-year-old Liam pointed excitedly at the screen where footage from our documentary was playing as part of the pre-show coverage.
The images were powerful - rescue operations, freed victims reuniting with families, criminal facilities being destroyed. But watching it now, knowing what the publicity would cost us, I wondered if the exposure was worth the risk.
"There's been a development," Lucas said quietly, approaching with his encrypted phone. "The intelligence services are picking up chatter about a coordinated response to tonight's ceremony."
"What kind of response?"
"The kind where multiple organizations have decided that our public profile makes us too dangerous to ignore. They're calling it 'Operation Spotlight' - eliminate the anti-trafficking advocates while the world is watching."
Harry looked up from his position monitoring the perimeter security feeds. "Timeline?"
"Unknown. Could be tonight during the ceremony, could be in the days following when we're most visible. But the chatter suggests they're planning something designed for maximum symbolic impact."
I felt Elena stir against my chest, her tiny body warm and trusting despite the danger surrounding our family. She had no idea that her parents' work had made her a target before she was even old enough to understand what trafficking meant.
"Options?" I asked.
"We can pull out now," Jax said. "Leave Los Angeles immediately, go underground for six months while the attention dies down."
"Or?"
"We attend the ceremony with maximum security and use the platform to send a message that we won't be intimidated."
"What kind of message?"
"The kind where we name specific organizations and individuals during our acceptance speech," Harry suggested. "Go on the offensive instead of just reacting to threats."
Through the window, I could see helicopters circling the ceremony venue, their searchlights cutting through the evening sky. Normal security for a high-profile event, but tonight it felt more like a military operation.
"There's a third option," Lucas said carefully.
"Which is?"
"We use this as an opportunity to finally end the cycle. Draw out every organization that sees us as a threat, deal with them permanently, and make it clear that targeting anti-trafficking advocates has consequences."
"You're talking about turning the Academy Awards into a battlefield."
"I'm talking about using their own plan against them. They want to eliminate us publicly? Let them try. But make sure the attempt becomes a demonstration of what happens when criminal organizations threaten innocent people."
Addison had been listening to our conversation with the focused attention she brought to everything adult-related. "Are the bad people coming tonight?"
"Some bad people might try to cause trouble," I said honestly. "But we have lots of good people protecting us."
"Can I help protect us?"
"You can help by staying safe and letting the adults handle the dangerous stuff."
"But I know how to fight. Uncle Harry taught me."
"Fighting is only for when you don't have any other choices. Tonight, we have lots of other choices."
My phone buzzed with a message from the documentary's director: "Five minutes until our category. You sure you're not coming?"
I looked around the hotel suite at my family - Jax monitoring communications, Harry coordinating with security teams, Lucas analyzing threat patterns, and our three children playing with toys while armed guards watched the corridors outside.
"I want to go," I said suddenly.
"Skylar, that's insane," Jax replied immediately.
"Is it? We've spent three years building an organization that's supposed to protect children from trafficking. If we hide every time someone threatens us, what message does that send?"
"It sends the message that we're smart enough to stay alive."
"And it also sends the message that criminal organizations can intimidate us into silence. That threatening our families is an effective strategy."
Elena began fussing, and I adjusted her position while thinking about the choice we were facing. Stay hidden and safe but allow our enemies to claim victory, or accept the risks and use the platform to advance our mission.
"The children stay here," Harry said finally. "If you're determined to do this, we go alone and they remain under maximum security."
"Agreed."
"And we wear body armor under our formal wear."
"Obviously."
"And we have extraction plans for every possible scenario."
"Lucas is already working on them."
Addison looked up from her toys, her dark eyes serious. "Mama, are you going to the pretty party now?"
"Mama's going to work. A different kind of work than usual, but still work."
"Will you tell people about the children who need help?"
"I'll tell everyone about the children who need help."
"Good. Someone should tell everyone."
An hour later, I was sitting in the back of an armored limousine, wearing a designer gown with Kevlar panels sewn into the bodice and enough concealed weapons to outfit a small army. Beside me, Harry, Jax, and Lucas wore tuxedos that concealed similar protective gear.
"Last chance to change your mind," Jax said as we approached the red carpet.
"Not changing my mind."
"Even knowing that we're probably walking into a trap?"
"Especially knowing that. Because the people setting traps for us are the same people who traffic children. And I'm tired of letting them think they have power over us."
As our limousine pulled up to the ceremony entrance and camera flashes began exploding around us, I realized that tonight would either mark the beginning of a new chapter in our fight against trafficking, or it would be the night that finally destroyed everything we'd built together.
But looking at the faces of the three men I loved, seeing their determination to stand with me no matter what the cost, I knew that whatever happened next, we'd face it the same way we'd faced everything else.
As a family.
Even if that family had learned to solve problems with violence and love in equal measure.
The question was whether the world was ready for that combination to take center stage.
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