The final wave of arrests concluded that summer — Councilwoman Ashford's conviction in July, followed by three smaller regional figures whose names had surfaced through the combined testimony of Wren's father, Renata Cole, and Cornelius Marsh's exhaustive ledger. By August, Desmond's investigation, spanning nearly sixteen years by that point, formally closed with a federal press conference that named the network's complete architecture, its full history, and its final reckoning.
Wren watched the press conference from their living room, Ana asleep against Cruz's shoulder, and felt something she hadn't expected: not triumph, exactly, but a quiet, settled completeness, like the final page of a book she'd spent years afraid she'd never finish reading.
"It's really over," she said.
"It's rea
