chapter 10

“General Samuel Voss, you are under arrest for kidnapping, treason, conspiracy and the murders committed to protect the Black Glass program.”
Voss’s cane slipped from his hand.
Arthur looked at the three women before him.
Lily—the daughter he had raised.
Anna—the daughter stolen before he ever held her.
Evelyn—the wife returned from the dead carrying truths that could never be buried again.
For fifteen years, Arthur had believed Richard Whitmore’s family owned the town.
For thirty years, he had believed Samuel Voss owned the secrets.
But the final truth was standing in front of him.
The frightened little girl hidden inside Black Glass had grown up.
She had found her sister.
She had protected her mother.
And when Lily’s scream finally traveled through the encrypted line, Anna had not activated an old operation.
She had activated a family.
Arthur stepped toward her.
Anna’s courage faltered for the first time.
“I didn’t know whether you would want me.”
Arthur crossed the remaining distance and wrapped his arms around her.
Lily joined them.
Then Evelyn.
Four people stood beside a grave that belonged to none of them, holding one another while agents led the architect of their suffering away.
Arthur closed his eyes.
He had once believed a father’s greatest fear was hearing his child call for help.
He had been wrong.
A father’s greatest fear was arriving too late.
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And his greatest miracle was discovering that, somehow, against money, violence, corruption, betrayal and death itself—
he had not.