Chapter 10 - THE VOICE THAT BROKE THE DARKNESSThe smoke cleared slowly, drifting out through the shattered windows into the cold December night.
Sirens wailed closer now—dopplering up the drive as federal reinforcements and state police finally swarmed the breached gates, realizing the battle was already over.
Vincenzo lowered his pistol. His hands were shaking.
He turned around and looked up the grand staircase.
Standing at the top of the steps, bathed in the soft, golden glow of the emergency wall lights, was Arya.
She wasn't hiding behind her father. She wasn't holding her notepad. She walked down the marble steps alone, her small shoes clicking softly against the stone, stopping three paces from the massive brindle dog.
Titan lowered his blood-stained head, pressing his scarred snout gently against her small palm.
Arya looked down at the dog, then raised her eyes to meet her father’s tear-filled gaze. The silence that had held her captive for four long years—the silence born of the night the windows came in—shattered into a million pieces.
"Good... dog, Titan," she whispered, her voice clear, sweet, and resonant, echoing through the silent, ruined foyer like a bell ringing at dawn.
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Vincenzo dropped to his knees on the marble floor, pulled his daughter into his arms, and buried his face in her hair, finally letting go of the war, the blood, and the ghosts of the past.
Outside, the snow fell softly over the broken gates, burying the ruins of a syndicate and the beginning of a brand-new world.
