Chapter 6 - The Confession in the Dark
By dawn, the fire had burned itself out against the stubborn stone and steel framework of the estate’s core, leaving the west wing smoking like a gutted ship.
Federal agents swarmed the property, hauling boxes of evidence from the charred remains of Julian’s suite, while local ambulances and police cruisers blocked the private gates. Julian—his shoulder heavily bandaged and his wrists locked in reinforced steel cuffs—was shoved into the back of an unmarked federal van, screaming obscenities that were muffled as the heavy doors slammed shut.
I stood on the front lawn, my face streaked with soot, my clothes smelling of ash and old memories, staring at the ruins of the house where I thought I had built my paradise.
"Boss," Marcus said, walking up beside me and handing me a cup of black coffee. "The federal prosecutor just called. With Julian's digital confession and the audit trails we unlocked, the indictments for conspiracy, corporate espionage, and first-degree murder are locked in. He’ll never see daylight again."
"Good," I murmured, taking the cup but not drinking from it. "And the girls?"
"They're safe at the Hudson Valley bunker," Marcus replied gently. "Rosa and Maya are looking after them. But... Boss, Lucia hasn't stopped crying since you left. She thinks you went into the fire and you're not coming back."
May you like
The coffee cup almost slipped from my fingers.
Without another word, I climbed back into the tactical SUV and turned the ignition. The war was over. The ghost that haunted my family for fourteen months had been exorcised. But the real work—the fragile, agonizing work of healing three little girls who had lost their mother and almost lost their father—was just beginning.
