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Shane's USB drive stopped swinging in his hand.
He looked at Lip, then at Fiona. Pieces suddenly snapped together in his head like a puzzle he hadn't wanted to solve.
Not "not here." They couldn't produce it.
The weird looks the last few days. Lip's unnatural silence. That power cable stretched across the van floor.
Every little detail pointed to the one possibility he hadn't let himself consider.
"Lip." Shane stared straight into his brother's eyes. "Look at me and say it again. Where's the laptop?"
Lip's throat tightened. He took half a step back. "I already told you—it's getting fixed—"
"I'll fix your fucking mother!"
Shane's roar exploded in the bedroom. He lunged forward, grabbed Lip by the collar with his left hand, and slammed him against the wall, lifting him clean off the ground.
Lip's feet dangled. His face turned purple.
"It's in the van, isn't it?" Shane's grip tightened. "Tell me the goddamn truth—is the laptop still inside that towed piece-of-shit van? The one with the seals on the doors that gets inventoried tomorrow?! Say it!"
"Shane! No—let him go!" Fiona rushed over, trying to pry Shane's fingers loose. Tears poured down her face instantly. "It's not what you think! We didn't mean to—we—"
"Didn't mean to what?" Shane whipped his head toward her. The raw disappointment in his eyes knocked the strength out of Fiona's hands. "Didn't mean to leave the laptop that holds every bit of our online and offline business—every payment account, every record—inside a van that's about to be torn apart and catalogued?! Didn't mean to hide it from me until right fucking now?! Do you have any idea what's on that thing?! One leak and we're all finished!"
Lip, still hanging in the air, felt the choking pressure, the terror, and the sting of Shane's words calling them idiots finally shatter something inside him.
"Yeah! It's in the van! So what?!" Lip's voice cracked. He stopped struggling and screamed right back. "You think I wanted this?! You think I planned it?! It's because of you, Shane Gallagher! You do everything right! Breakfast stall? Yours. Gym? Yours. Online courses? Yours. Now you've even drawn up the fucking store blueprint!"
Tears streamed down Lip's face as he spat out the deepest fear they all carried. "Yeah, I fucked up! I'm stupid! I deserve it! But you—you've been looking at us like we're already gone! You plan this, plan that, hand us a store, hand us money, give Fiona breathing room, give Ian a job, give Debbie a home—like you're building us a nice little exit ramp! And then what? Once the store's open and we're all on your perfect track, you can walk away with a clear conscience, right?! You think we're dead weight! Everything you're doing is just buying off your guilt so you can leave without feeling bad!"
"You're no different from Monica! She left a pile of kids and a mess. You want to leave a store and some cash! It's still abandonment!"
"Lip, stop—please stop!" Fiona sobbed.
His words had ripped open the exact same terror she'd been swallowing for days.
She slid down the wall, face in her hands, broken cries leaking through her fingers. "It's not like that—Shane, it's not—we were scared—we were so fucking scared that if you found out you'd leave—we wanted to fix it ourselves—we were gonna steal it back tonight—we wanted everything perfect before you knew—we're sorry—we're so sorry—"
"You think I want to abandon you?"
Shane's voice suddenly went deathly calm. He lowered the now-purple Lip back to the floor but kept his fist twisted in the collar.
He raised his other hand and jabbed a finger hard into Lip's chest, punctuating every word.
"Lip Gallagher. Fiona Gallagher. Listen the fuck up."
"If I wanted to abandon this family, I would've walked the second I tased Frank and realized I could actually protect myself. If I wanted out, I would've packed a bag the minute my first online payout hit and I knew I didn't need any of you to survive."
His volume rose again. Every question landed like a hammer. "I wanted to give you a way out of waking up every day wondering where the next meal was coming from! I wanted Carl to stop playing with dirt and Debbie to dance ballet without worrying about the electric bill! I thought if we just stuck together—even if we were clumsy about it—we could at least move forward!"
Shane's chest heaved. The anger in his eyes was now mixed with something deeper—hurt. "Instead you treat every line I draw like toilet paper! You ignore every warning I give! Something goes wrong and your first thought isn't to face it—it's to hide it from me and then pull an even stupider, more dangerous stunt! And now you're turning it around and accusing me of wanting to abandon you?!"
He shoved Lip away. Lip stumbled back against the wall. Exhaustion crashed over Shane harder than the rage ever had.
"If I really wanted to leave this family, I should be sitting in some North Side apartment right now planning my future—not standing here screaming at you over a fucking laptop that could get us all locked up!"
The bedroom door creaked open a crack.
Carl and Debbie were huddled in the doorway, small faces pale with terror and confusion.
Ian was at his night shift. They'd heard the shouting. Now it was just the two of them facing the storm.
Debbie's eyes were huge. She clutched her doll like a shield.
Carl's face was scrunched up. He looked from Shane to the others, fists balled tight, the usual fearless kid nowhere in sight.
After a few seconds of silence Debbie stumbled forward and threw herself into Fiona's lap. "Fiona… what's wrong? Don't cry…"
Carl stayed frozen in the doorway. He didn't understand why the strongest brother was yelling, why the smartest one was crying, why the toughest sister was breaking.
He wanted to move but couldn't. All he managed was a tiny whisper: "You guys… you're scaring me…"
The kids' arrival hit like a bucket of ice water.
Shane closed his eyes, dragged in a long breath, and when he opened them again the fury was locked down.
He wasn't doing this in front of Carl and Debbie.
His gaze swept the room—Fiona and Debbie crying on the floor, Carl terrified in the doorway, Lip slumped against the wall, face drained of color.
"So let me get this straight," he said, voice low and flat. "Tonight you two were planning to break into the impound lot and steal the laptop. That right?"
Fiona's sobs hitched into shaky breathing. Lip's lips moved but no sound came out.
"Answer me." Shane's tone wasn't loud, but it left zero room for bullshit.
"…Yes."
Shane let out a cold, bitter laugh.
"Wow. What a perfect plan. Ski masks, cut the fence, then stumble around in the dark praying you find the right van among hundreds before security or the cops roll up. Real movie shit."
The description made both of them go cold.
"I was in that fucking van this afternoon!" Shane's voice rose again; the anger wouldn't stay buried. He stepped right into Lip's face and jabbed a finger at his nose. "I opened the doors, climbed in the back, called you on the phone, and asked—asked—if there was anything left behind! I gave you one last chance! And you looked me in the eye and said nothing!"
He spun toward Fiona. "You were sitting right next to him, weren't you?"
Fiona nodded, stunned, still not fully processing.
Shane's smile was pure acid. "So did he tell you I was standing inside the van when I called? That the goddamn laptop was literally at my feet?!"
Fiona's crying stopped dead.
She looked up at Lip, tears still wet on her cheeks, eyes wide with disbelief. "Lip… when he called… you just said… you told him we weren't getting the van back…"
Lip couldn't take the weight of both their stares anymore. He slid down the wall until he was sitting on the floor, face buried in his hands. His shoulders started shaking with ugly, broken sobs.
Shane looked at the three of them—Fiona crying, Debbie terrified, Carl scared for the first time in his life, Lip completely shattered.
The rage slowly drained out, replaced by bone-deep exhaustion and something colder.
He took one step back.
"I thought…" His voice was quiet now. "I really thought this family could still be saved."
He looked at every face.
"I kept telling myself you weren't Frank and Monica. You were just unlucky. You just needed someone to pull you up."
A bitter laugh escaped him.
"Now I get it. Mud is mud. The harder you try to slap it on the wall, the harder it drags you down with the dumbest moves at the worst possible moment…"
Fiona's face crumpled harder, tears falling silently. Lip's sobs turned into quiet, choking gasps.
Shane stared down at them.
"Lip. Fiona. Tell me the entire stupid plan right now. Route, timing, tools, backup, every single detail. And if you hide even one more thing from me—"
He let the threat hang in the air.
"Then congratulations. We can all go somewhere else and keep arguing about who abandoned who."
"Start talking."