LOGINStepping out of the dog café, none of them had finished their drinks.The group deliberated and headed upstairs.Golden Pond Mall followed a fairly traditional layout, spending power scaled with each floor. Ground level ran snacks and casual goods; the top floor housed formalwear and fine jewelry.Nora picked a jewelry store.Before walking in, she deliberately didn’t ditch her drink. Right at the door, a greeter stopped her. “So sorry, ma’am, drinks aren’t allowed inside. Would you like me to hold it for you?”“You’ll hold it?”“Of course. I’ll return it the second you’re done. Promise, no sneaky sips!”The greeter delivered it with a genuine, easy warmth.Even though Nora was holding cheap fruit juice, not exactly a designer beverage.Nora nodded, pleased. “Alright, take care of it for me.”“Nora, always the busy one even forgetting jewelry stores don’t allow outside drinks. If it’s been a while since you’ve been shopping, I’ve got VIP cards at plenty of places. We could go together
Nora was clearing plush toys fast, barely even aiming. Three tokens per attempt, mind elsewhere the whole batch vanished quickly.Once they were gone, at least they could finally leave.Alex still led the way at the front, unhurried, glancing at everything with the same open curiosity of a tourist genuinely taking in a foreign country.“Wait, what’s that?”He pointed at a poster board nearby, face lighting up with interest.Nora glanced over a wall of dog photos, mostly small white fluffballs, plastered with cute stickers and emojis.Right in the center: a photo of an alpaca. Nora blinked, confused for a second, before piecing it together at a Dog Café.In her last life, cat and dog cafés had trended briefly, cat cafés generally pulling more traffic. She’d never fully understood why this one leaned dog-focused, and had no read on how the concept performed internationally. Alex, judging by his face, had no clue either.She explained, smiling. “It’s a dog café you sit and have tea while
“What is wrong with that woman? Challenging you unprompted just to mock people afterward!”“She wasn’t wrong, though.” Alex rolled his eyes, shooting Nora a pointed look. “If I’d known, I’d have borrowed machines from a different company entirely.”He’d had his own technicians handle the earlier fix, personally reimbursed Vivian for the tokens on the spot, an obvious attempt to draw a hard line. Somehow, none of it had registered. Vivian just kept clinging regardless.Whether that was genuine obliviousness or a deliberate act, he didn’t particularly care to find out.“Ha, let's go check something else.”Nora had assumed Alex would decline the winnings even if he won. Instead, he’d taken every last token. His blunt, black-and-white worldview only deepened her unease.This was a man who saw everything in absolutes. Lose, and you accept it. Cross him, lie to him, even a friend probably wouldn’t get a pass.Especially since she and Alex weren’t even remotely friends. She cut the thought o
“Is this inspection genuinely random? Then can I pick that one?”Alex pointed toward an arcade. The entrance was designed as an enormous gray cat with its mouth stretched wide open, genuinely charming.“You can. Let’s go check on the machines.”Nathaniel said it and offered his arm.“My wife’s not big on high-energy stuff like arcades, so you’ll have to experience it yourself.”Nora, already halfway through a refusal, quickly looped her arm through Nathaniel’s instead, nodding fast. “Right, right, not into arcade stuff. Big homebody, honestly.”“Alright, I’ll go grab tokens then.”“Alex, I’ll get them. No need to trouble yourself.”Vivian rushed toward the counter. While she was gone, Alex turned to Nora. “You’re married too? Genuinely couldn’t tell. You and Vivian both got husbands out of nowhere.”“Ah, it’s in the paperwork somewhere. My husband’s pretty quiet, doesn’t love the spotlight but don’t let the silence fool you, he gets territorial if I’m out of sight for too long.”Nora’
At the entrance of Golden Pond Mall. Nora, arm in arm with Nathaniel, dressed in a soft floral sundress, moved through the crowd like an ordinary if unusually attractive couple. They drew glances, sure, but outside the handful who followed financial news closely, almost nobody actually recognized them. Shoppers had better things to do than clock faces. So without ever flashing any ID, the two of them stayed comfortably anonymous. Nora, remembering his earlier vague instructions, asked quietly, “Which stores are we actually checking?” “Hmm most are new openings, Kevin didn’t specify. Let’s just wander.” Once he said that, Nora started scanning for whatever caught her eye. First stop: a snack shop, not out of any real craving the products themselves were just genuinely interesting. The place was called “Childhood Snacks,” shelves stocked floor to ceiling on both sides. The most prominent display featured the spicy jerky strips Nora remembered vividly, the kind she’d definitely sn
Back at the estate, Nora finally let herself relax. She tossed her bag onto the coat rack, dropped onto the couch, and pulled out her personal laptop.Nathaniel, seated nearby, raised an eyebrow. “What’s going on? You seem rushed.”“Can’t tell you this one.”Nora just wanted to run a quick check. Once she confirmed her IP hadn’t been exposed, she closed the laptop, planning to head toward her personal workspace.Whenever she worked there, everyone had an unspoken agreement not to interrupt unless necessary.Unexpectedly, Nathaniel laughed.“Can’t tell me? Adding another layer to your IP masking, or locking down the laptop itself? Too many passwords on a private machine looks suspicious on its own. You’re reinforcing hidden-file security, aren’t you?”He read her mind, spot on, exactly as it was happening.Nora froze, then gave a sheepish smile. “You… already know?”“Know what? Relax, I’m not into being dominated.”Nora took a second, then remembered the double meaning. He wasn’t into







