Chapter 100 - The Gavel Falls
"No," Victoria whimpered, tears cutting clean lines through the dirt on her cheeks. "No, no, no... that’s impossible. Sterling told me—"
"Sterling lied to you," a deep voice boomed from the grand archway behind us.
Commander Harris stepped into the chamber, followed by four state marshals, their sidearms lowered but ready. Behind them, escorted in heavy titanium wrist restraints, was Arthur Sterling. His charcoal coat was torn, his ivory cane broken in two, and his face dark with suppressed rage.
"Mr. Sterling’s private securities firm just had its federal charter revoked," Harris said, stepping past me and locking his cold eyes on Victoria. "The moment the transmission from the school foundation reached the central teletype in Chicago, the Treasury Department unsealed the original 1933 federal oversight order. The Blackwood array isn't a private corporation. It's a strategic national energy reserve."
Harris looked at Victoria's gun. He didn't even draw his own.
"Drop the weapon, Miss Vance. You're facing forty counts of corporate sabotage, treason, conspiracy to commit murder, and reckless endangerment of a minor."
Victoria looked around wildly. She looked at the towering walls of bronze files, the slowly turning golden rings overhead, the marshals, and finally at Lily, who was still standing quietly by my side, watching her with solemn, untroubled eyes.
With a choked, pathetic sob, Victoria let the revolver slip from her fingers. It hit the marble floor with a dull, hollow clatter. Two marshals stepped forward instantly, kicking the weapon away, forcing her arms behind her back, and snapping the cold steel cuffs around her wrists. She didn't fight them. She collapsed into their grip, weeping like a broken child as they dragged her toward the perimeter lift.
I sank to my knees, pulling Lily into my chest, burying my face in her hair. She smelled of the winter wind and old paper, but she was warm, she was breathing, and she was whole.
"It's over, baby," I whispered, kissing her forehead over and over again as my own tears finally broke free. "It's all over."
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"Mommy," Lily whispered back, tugging gently on my collar. "Look at the desk."
***
