Chapter 5 - Dawn Over Manhattan
By 6:00 AM, the first rays of golden autumn sunlight were breaking across the Manhattan skyline, painting the glass towers of the financial district in brilliant hues of orange and rose.
In a private suite at the hospital, Renata stirred beneath her blanket.
Her eyelids fluttered open. The heavy grogginess of the sedatives was beginning to fade, replaced by a dull, throbbing ache in her jaw. She blinked against the morning light streaming through the blinds.
Sitting in the armchair beside her bed was her father.
He was wearing his usual worn flannel shirt, a cup of lukewarm hospital coffee resting on the small table beside him. His face looked tired, lined with the weight of a sleepless night, but his eyes were entirely at peace.
Renata tried to move, letting out a soft hiss of pain.
Daniel was instantly out of his chair, kneeling beside her bed and gently taking her uninjured hand in his. “Easy, sweetheart. Don’t push it.”
She looked up at him, her gray-blue eyes—so like her mother’s—searching his face with a mixture of confusion and profound relief. She pointed weakly toward the bedside table, where a small, official-looking document lay beside her notebook.
Daniel followed her gaze and picked up the paper.
It was a certified news printout and federal press release.
FEDERAL RAIDS UNCOVER BILLION-DOLLAR CORRUPTION RING; SENATOR ELEVANOR BELTRAN RESIGNS AMID EMBEZZLEMENT AND CONSPIRACY CHARGES. THREE COLLEGE STUDENTS ARRESTED IN CONNECTION WITH CAMPUS ASSAULT; FEDERAL INVESTIGATION EXPANDS TO ORGANISED CRIME SYNDICATE.
Renata looked at her father, her hand trembling slightly against his palm. She grabbed the pen from her notebook and wrote four shaky words across a clean sheet of paper.
ARE WE SAFE NOW?
Daniel looked down at his daughter—the only piece of his soul that mattered in this world, the girl who had unknowingly held the key to unlocking the shadows of his past.
May you like
He smiled softly, bringing her hand to his lips and kissing her knuckles.
“Yes, baby,” Daniel whispered, looking out the window as the city woke up beneath a clear, endless sky. “We’re safe. The ghosts are finally gone for good.”
