The elevator doors slid shut, separating Clara from the man she had just shattered her own soul to save.
She leaned her forehead against the cool, stainless-steel wall of the cabin, closing her eyes as the elevator began its rapid descent. The tears she had held back during her final moments with Ares now flowed freely, hot and unrelenting. She clutched her empty hands to her chest, feeling as though she had just ripped her own heart out and left it on the glass table of the executive lounge.
"It's over," Clara whispered to the empty cabin, her voice cracking. "He is safe. You did the right thing."
She repeated the mantra, trying to force her lungs to take in air. She was a civilian now. A former secretary with a severed proxy. By the time she reached the ground floor lobby, she would w
