I stared at the photograph until my eyes burned.
Four people. Three I knew. One stranger.
And the quiet certainty that our hardest battle wasn't behind us. It was still waiting.
“Who is he?” Victor asked softly, looking over my shoulder.
“I don't know.” I saved the image to my phone. “But I'm going to find out. Not because I'm afraid, but because I'm done running from shadows.”
For the first time, the words felt true.
The next few days brought a strange mix of celebration and quiet determination. Silas and his associates faced charges, and investigations into the Circle's activities continued. The network that had controlled so many lives was formally dissolved.
The Bennett Foundation began a new chapter.
Its finances were published online. Scholarship applications became open to e
