Chapter 6 - The Ashes of the PastSilence descended on the boardroom once more, broken only by the distant wail of sirens echoing up from the Manhattan streets far below. Federal agents, tipped off by Nora’s encrypted data dump, were already securing the perimeter of the Mercer tower.
Grant dropped to his knees beside Richard’s unconscious body, his chest heaving, before slowly turning his head toward the center of the room.
Mara lowered her weapon, letting it slide smoothly into her holster. She walked slowly toward him, her boots clicking rhythmically against the obsidian floor. When she reached him, she knelt down, her fingers reaching out to touch his cheek. Her skin was warm, real, and trembling.
"You found me," she whispered, a tear finally cutting a clean path down her dust-stained face. "Or rather... you finally asked the right question."
Grant pulled her into his arms, burying his face in her shoulder, holding her with a fierce, desperate strength as if letting go would mean waking up from the best dream of his life. "I thought I lost you. Every single day, I thought I lost you."
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"They tried to break me, Grant," she murmured against his ear. "They put me in a black site, erased my identity, told me you had moved on, that you didn't care. But every night, I sang that song to myself. I knew that as long as the music box was out there, and as long as you heard it, you would remember."
Nora stood quietly by the window, watching them with a quiet, melancholic smile. She picked up the silver music box from the desk, wound the brass key one last time, and let the familiar, haunting melody drift out over the ruins of the empire Richard had tried to steal.
