Chapter 14: Ghosts in the Machine
The night before the operation, Jane couldn't sleep. The safehouse was quiet, save for the hum of the servers. She stood in front of a cracked mirror in the communal bathroom, staring at her reflection. She barely recognized the woman looking back. The soft, terrified girl who had fled an arranged marriage was gone. Her eyes were hollow, her cheekbones sharp.
She gripped the edges of the sink until her knuckles turned white. She could still hear Arthur coughing up blood on the hardwood floor of his apartment. She could still hear Eleanor screaming as the Vanguard operatives dragged her into the unmarked van. Jane had used them to cover her tracks, believing the sacrifice was necessary for her freedom.
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You’re exactly like him, a voice whispered in her mind. You are your father’s daughter.
She punched the mirror. The glass shattered, spider-webbing across her reflection, distorting her face into a fragmented monster. Blood dripped from her knuckles into the porcelain sink. She watched the red droplets swirl down the drain, feeling absolutely nothing. This was the price of war.
