Chapter 14 - Dawn of Justice
The flashing red and blue lights of the police cruisers painted the morning fog in harsh, rhythmic strokes as federal agents and local police swarmed the abandoned rail station. Mr. Vance stood frozen beside his car, his hands cuffed behind his back by two federal marshals who read him his Miranda rights with cold precision. Eleanor was pulled from the passenger seat of the second SUV, screaming curses and weeping real, desperate tears as her metallic dress tore on the rough gravel.
From the edge of the drainage ditch, Leo watched the man he once called father being pushed into the back of a squad car. He didn't cry. The tears were gone, replaced by the quiet, resolute strength of a survivor.
Clara stepped out of an ambulance nearby, wrapped in a warm wool blanket, her face bruised but her eyes shining with unshed tears of relief. She spotted Leo standing beside Thomas and immediately hurried over, dropping to her knees to pull the five-year-old boy into a fierce, unbreakable embrace.
"You did it, my brave boy," Clara choked out, kissing the top of his head. "You saved us all."
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Leo looked past her shoulder as the police convoy began to roll away, carrying Richard Vance toward a trial he could never bribe his way out of.
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