Chapter 7 - Sunrise Over the Estate
The deafening echo of the gunshot faded into the heavy silence of the basement. Marcus Vance slumped forward in the metal chair, his secrets buried with him permanently.
I lowered the smoking weapon, sliding it back into my holster without breaking eye contact with Grace.
“It’s over,” I said quietly.
Grace let out a long, shuddering breath, the tension of fourteen months finally melting away from her shoulders. She reached out, her fingers softly touching the blood-stained cuff of my shirt—the same blood I had walked into the house with days ago.
“Yes,” she whispered. “It’s over.”
We walked out of the basement together, leaving the darkness behind us.
When we reached the main floor of the mansion, the first rays of morning sunlight were streaming through the massive glass windows of the foyer, casting a warm, golden glow across the marble floor where my briefcase had dropped just days before.
Upstairs, a door creaked open.
Three pairs of small footsteps padded down the grand staircase. Olivia, Sophie, and Nora appeared at the landing, rubbing their eyes, dressed in their matching pajamas.
For a terrifying second, I braced myself for the silence.
Instead, little Nora broke into a wide, gap-toothed smile, ran down the remaining steps, and threw her arms around my legs.
“Daddy!” she shouted, her voice echoing joyfully through the twenty-room mansion.
May you like
Sophie and Olivia followed close behind, rushing toward us. Grace knelt down on the marble floor with open arms, and my daughters crowded around her, laughing and chattering all at once.
I stood there in the bright morning sunlight, looking down at my daughters and the woman who had saved us all. The blood on my cuff was gone, washed away by the dawn. The war was over, the ghosts were laid to rest, and for the first time in fourteen months, my home finally felt like a home.
