Chapter 10 - Ashes of the Empire
The storm had passed by dawn, leaving the air crisp and cold. The towering steel barricades of the Montgomery Manor were wide open, flanked by a dozen FBI tactical vehicles.
Inside the house, the scene was one of absolute devastation. Silas Montgomery was led out in handcuffs, his face an unreadable mask of defeated fury. Julian Montgomery followed shortly after, sobbing openly, begging the agents to listen to him, screaming that it was all a setup by the maid.
But the maid was nowhere to be found.
A mile down the coastal highway, Lyra stood on the edge of the cliff, looking out over the crashing waves of the Pacific. She had shed the stiff, charcoal and ivory uniform, leaving it in a crumpled heap in the dirt. She wore a simple black jacket and jeans, the morning wind whipping her dark hair around her face.
She held a lighter in her hand. In her other hand was the physical copy of the master ledger. She had kept it. The digital copies were enough to put the Montgomerys away for life, but she wanted to watch the physical manifestation of their power burn.
She flicked the lighter. The flame caught the edge of the leather-bound book. She watched it curl, turn black, and crumble into ash, tossing it into the wind where it scattered over the ocean.
For ten years, she had been a ghost, a girl with an erased past, living only for vengeance. She had scrubbed floors, swallowed her pride, and lived in the shadows of the monsters who broke her family.
Now, the monsters were in cages. The fortress was breached.
Lyra pulled out her phone. She removed the SIM card, snapped it in half, and tossed the device off the cliff. She didn't need it anymore. She didn't need the aliases, the malware, or the disguises.
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She turned away from the ocean and began to walk down the highway, heading toward the rising sun. She was no longer a faceless servant. She was no longer an invisible girl in a starched uniform.
She was Lyra Thorne. And for the first time in ten years, she was free.
