LOGINThe conversation ended the same way most conversations with the First Lady ended. Without ceremony. She simply reached for another document resting neatly beside her teacup. The audience was over. Delvis understood the dismissal immediately. He stood. "So soon?" she asked without looking up. "I still have preparations to oversee." "You always do." She adjusted her glasses slightly as her eyes continued moving across the report before her. "Then don't disappoint me."Four simple words. No threat. None was necessary. "I won't." She nodded once. "I know." It wasn't encouragement. It was expectation. There was a difference. Delvis inclined his head respectfully before turning toward the door. His hand had barely reached the brass handle when her voice stopped him one final time. "Delvis." He looked back. For the first time since he'd entered the room, she wasn't looking at paperwork. She was looking directly at him. "When your grandfather handed this family to me.
The room smelled faintly of jasmine.Not because someone had recently lit incense.Because it always had.The west drawing room overlooked the oldest part of the estate. Tall windows stretched from polished hardwood floors to the intricately molded ceiling, allowing afternoon light to spill gently across antique Persian rugs and dark walnut furniture that had remained in the same position for longer than Delvis had been alive.Nothing here was modern.Nothing needed to be.History had a habit of making its own statement.The First Lady sat beside the windows with a porcelain teacup resting comfortably between both hands.She wasn't reading.She wasn't writing.She simply looked out toward the gardens as though she had known precisely when he would arrive.Without turning around, she spoke."You've grown fond of making me wait."Delvis stopped a respectful distance behind her."I arrived three minutes early.""I know."Only then did she turn.Age had silvered her hair but failed to dim
The city slowly disappeared behind them. Glass towers gave way to older neighborhoods. Older neighborhoods surrendered to tree-lined roads, and before long even those began to thin until only stretches of quiet countryside remained beyond the car windows. Isaiah sat in the front passenger seat with his usual posture, hands resting calmly on his lap as though he had made this journey hundreds of times before. Perhaps he had. Delvis sat in the back, one elbow resting against the window, watching familiar scenery drift past in comfortable silence. It had been almost three months since he last came here. Not because he did not want to. Because whenever the First Lady requested his presence, it was rarely for something that could be described as casual. The driver slowed as the road curved gently to the left. A pair of towering wrought-iron gates stood ahead, black with intricate gold detailing woven through the center. Time had never been allowed to touch them. Every bar still gl
The tea had gone cold. Doris wrapped both hands around the cup anyway, standing beside the kitchen window without drinking from it. Morning had slowly given way to afternoon while she remained in almost the exact same position, her thoughts circling the same questions until they no longer felt like thoughts at all. The hotel. The missing footage. Stanley's phone call. "You were looking in the wrong place." The words refused to leave her alone. She had walked into that hotel believing she was one step ahead. Instead, she had arrived just in time to discover someone else had already finished the game. She let out a slow breath. "No..." Her reflection looked back at her through the glass. "I'm asking the wrong questions." The footage was gone. There was nothing she could do about that anymore. What still remained... ...was the wine. She remembered Stanley's face inside the warehouse. Not angry. Not confused. Certain. Certain enough to kidnap her. Certain enough to p
The warehouse looked different. Not because the building itself had changed. The walls were still the same weathered concrete. The loading bays still carried the faded markings from years ago. Even the steel staircase leading to the offices above remained slightly uneven near the third step. Delvis noticed it anyway. His feet avoided the step without thinking. Habit. The movement happened before memory caught up with it. Very little had changed. Only the people. The guards recognized him immediately. Neither reached for a weapon. One stepped forward instead. "Mr. Delvis." Delvis looked at him briefly. The man had not been there the last time. Too young. He couldn't have known what this place used to be. "Stanley is upstairs." Delvis continued walking. No one tried to stop him. No one asked him to wait. The office door stood open. Stanley was standing beside the window with both hands resting lightly in his pockets. Morning sunlight spilled across the polished wo
Morning came quietly. The mansion was awake long before the sun had fully settled over the city. Somewhere downstairs, someone was preparing breakfast. The faint smell of coffee drifted through the hallway, mixing with the scent of polished wood that always seemed to linger inside the house. Doris stood in front of the bathroom mirror. The mark around her right wrist had faded overnight. Barely noticeable now. She turned her arm slightly under the light before letting it fall back to her side. It would disappear in another day. Unfortunately, the memory wouldn't. Her eyes lifted to the mirror again. For a moment she simply stared at herself. She looked... tired. Not exhausted. Just older than she had looked two days ago. It amazed her how quickly fear could age a person. She splashed cold water across her face before drying it carefully. "Enough," she whispered to herself. "You survived." The words sounded convincing. She wished they felt convincing too. Breakfast
Doris adjusted her grip on her bag as she stood in front of the door. She took a small breath before knocking lightly.“Come in,” a voice said from inside.She pushed the door open and stepped in, her eyes immediately landing on the two women seated behind the table. They were already gathering the
Back home, the bathroom filled with steam as Doris stood under the shower, letting the hot water run over her skin in slow, steady streams.For a while, she did not move.She just stood there, eyes closed, as everything from the night replayed in her mind whether she wanted it to or not.Tom’s face
Doris checked the time again, her eyes lingering on the glowing screen longer than necessary as if staring at it would somehow change what it showed.10:47 PM.Her fingers tightened slightly around her phone, but her expression remained composed as she looked up at the waiter standing beside her ta
A few minutes after the call ended, Doris remained seated at her desk, quietly looking around as she tried to get used to the space. Everything in the office looked too arranged, too perfect, as if nothing was allowed to be out of place. Even the air felt different, calmer but somehow heavier, like







