My leather bag felt lighter now, though its contents hadn’t changed.

We walked out onto the tarmac, where a small twin-engine plane sat waiting under the hangar lights.

The ground crew was finishing their final checks.

I stopped at the bottom of the metal stairs, looking back at the Chicago skyline in the distance.

The skyscrapers were partially obscured by the low-hanging clouds.

That city held the ruins of my family’s legacy.

It held the memory of my mother, the greed of my sister, and the crimes of my father.

But it no longer held me.

“Claire?” Gabriel called from the top of the stairs.

He was holding the cabin door open, waiting.

I looked at him.

He had risked his own safety and his reputation to help me find the truth.

He had kept his promise.

I climbed the stairs, the metal cold beneath my shoes.

I stepped inside the cabin, the warm air wrapping around me.

Gabriel closed the door behind us, sealing out the sound of the rain and the city.

I sat down in the leather seat opposite him.