(Rebuilt Sterling Manor)
Alia pried open the faded teddy bear. Inside, a microfilm revealed the complete antidote formula.
Carson embraced her from behind, the Sterling-Horizon merger documents spread across the long oak table.
"Sophie requested to go to Tokyo," he murmured, brushing a tear from her lashes, "to destroy the last of the toxin."
"And we," he added with a smile, "need to decide the name of our new company."
Alia looked out to the garden, where Marta's roses bloomed in the scorched earth. She tossed her father's final letter into the fireplace.
In the rising flame, a gold-embossed card slowly took shape—Sterling Horizon.
In the distance, a white rose, unsigned, rested against Victor's grave.
Wound around its stem was a tiny metal hummingbird, spinning gently in the breeze.