Chapter 5 - Shadows at the GatesThat afternoon, the tension in the mansion reached a boiling point. Margaret packed her bags, her face a mask of bitter, unyielding hatred. As her black limousine rolled down the grand gravel driveway, she didn't look back once.
Ethan felt a profound sense of relief wash over him. He walked into the living room where Sophie and Lily were laughing softly, drawing pictures with colorful markers under Maria's watchful, loving eye.
"Look, Mr. Ethan!" Lily squealed, holding up a drawing of a house with four stick figures standing in front of it. "That's you, me, Sophie, and Maria!"
Ethan smiled, kneeling down to accept the drawing. For the first time in his life, he felt like he belonged somewhere real.
Yet, outside the high iron gates of the estate, parked half a mile down the winding country road, a sleek black sedan sat idling in the shadows.
Inside the sedan, a man with a scarred face dialed a encrypted satellite phone.
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"The old woman has been ousted," the man reported into the receiver. "The boy thinks he won. Should we execute phase two?"
A cold, synthetic voice crackled through the speaker: "Proceed. If the Carters cannot control the empire, nobody will."
