Chapter 19 - The Dawn Over St. Stephen’s
By 6:00 a.m., Sarah and Julian Vance walked out of the cathedral doors into the crisp morning air of Vienna.
A team of international legal representatives and Swiss banking auditors were already arriving in armored transport vans to catalog the reserves.
Sarah pulled out her satellite phone and dialed her father at the Potomac estate in Virginia.
“Dad,” Sarah said as the line connected, watching the sun rise over the gothic spires of Vienna.
“I found the European reserves. It’s over.”
On the other end of the line, Arthur Sterling let out a long, deep breath—the sound of a man carrying fifty years of war finally putting down his rifle.
“Good work, Sarah,” her father replied, his voice thick with emotion. “Your grandfather would be proud.”
Sarah hung up the phone, feeling the cool autumn breeze against her face, the faint scar on her temple tingling in the morning light.
She had started this journey bleeding on the floor of a dining room in the Hamptons, battered by an arrogant husband who thought she was powerless.
Now, she stood at the pinnacle of global intelligence and international finance, having dismantled an entire criminal syndicate with her own hands.
She turned to Julian Vance, offering her hand for a firm, professional handshake.
May you like
“The past is settled, Julian,” Sarah said with quiet authority.
“Now we build the future.”
