Vanquished.

She looked at the body of her enemy lying there on the floor. She knew she should feel a sense of triumph, but instead there was only sorrow. Sorrow for the lost years, the million memories that would never be, the milestones both present and future that would never be shared.

For you see, the dead body belonged to her mother.

Her mother had run out on her father soon after her birth, and the girl had wondered all her life what it was like to have a mother. Someone to make sure her hair was perfect on picture day, or to give her advice when the girls at school were teasing her. When she grew up, she became their city's most distinguished police officer, and ended up going after the head of the most notorious organized crime family in the city.

Only to discover that the person she was going after was her mother.

Vanquished--but did she vanquish her personal demon when she vanquished the