Chapter 99 - Sins of the Fathers
By late afternoon, the convoy pulled away from the gates of Vance Manor, leaving the iron gates chained and locked behind them with federal seals fluttering in the bitter wind.
Emma drove her battered SUV down the winding mountain pass, Lily asleep in the backseat, clutching the wooden horse Claire had given her. Claire sat in the passenger seat, staring out at the snow-laden pines lining the highway.
"Where will you go now?" Emma asked quietly.
Claire looked down at her scarred hands. "Zurich first. There are still accounts held under my dead identity that need to be formally closed and transferred to the restitution fund. Then... I don't know. I’ve lived as a ghost for thirty years, Emma. I don't even know what my real voice sounds like when I'm not looking over my shoulder."
"You don't have to be a ghost anymore," Emma said. "We have a spare room in Albany. It's small, and the radiator clanks when it gets below zero, but nobody is hiding listening devices in the baseboards."
Claire turned her head, her dark eyes shining with unshed tears. "You really want me there? After everything my disappearance put you through?"
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"You didn't disappear to hurt me, Claire. You disappeared to survive," Emma said, reaching across the console to squeeze her sister’s hand. "Eleanor took thirty years of our lives. I’m not letting her take tomorrow."
They drove in comfortable silence through the descending twilight, the headlights cutting through the swirling flurries of snow. For the first time in Emma’s memory, the road ahead did not feel like an escape; it felt like an arrival.
