LOGINDean had never liked meeting in offices, so he came to the one place Atlas still kept for this kind of conversation. It was like a quiet back room in a Steele-owned building where nobody asked what anyone was doing there.He dropped a thin folder on the table and sat down across from Atlas without taking off his coat.“Bauer and I spent three days on this,” he said. “I’ll tell you what holds up and what doesn’t, and I’d rather you didn’t get excited about either half.”“Start with what holds up.”“Cillian was right about one thing.” Dean opened the folder and turned a page toward him. “Marcus Vane did work around Raphael years ago, and I found two old contracts, a few travel records, and a security invoice with his name on it.”Dean shook his head. “Nothing dramatic. Mostly logistics, moving cargo, arranging drivers, solving problems Raphael didn’t want attached to his own name.”“That matches what Cillian said.”“It does, and it’s the only thing that does.” Dean leaned back. “The re
By the morning of the hearing, Tony had done what he did best, which was to make a frightening list smaller.“Hale asked for eight pieces,” he told Elara in the courthouse corridor, flipping through a folder as they walked. “You’ve already pulled three, so there’s nothing left to fight over there. I expect their lawyer to spend most of his time on the rest, especially the ones with the draped seams, and he’ll say they echo Lucia-era work.”“They’re mine,” Elara said.“I know, and that’s why I want you to stay calm if he implies otherwise.” Tony glanced at her. “Dana’s timestamps will do the talking, and you don’t have to say anything at all.”She nodded.At the courtroom doors, Atlas stopped a step behind her with his hands in his pockets.“I’ll stay where you can see me,” he said as he took out his hands and stepped closer to her.Lifting a hand toward her scarf, which had slipped to one side, he straightened it.Elara blinked, recovering from the surprise. “Thank you.”The room was
Elara’s studio smelled like steam and chalk, and after a week of press rooms and conference tables, she had missed it more than she’d expected. Sunlight cut across the long worktable, dress forms stood in a loose half circle by the window, and the pinboard on the far wall was crowded with sketches she hadn’t looked at in days.The courier from Varela Atelier arrived a little after nine with a flat box and a thick envelope.She opened the envelope first. Varela’s revised terms ran six pages, and he had done exactly what she asked: three weeks for samples, a flat seam, and a cost increase listed so plainly that she almost laughed. He had written one line at the bottom in blue ink. You were right about the puckering. It was my cutter’s habit, not your design.The box held the first revised sample, a charcoal wool coat folded in tissue. She lifted it out and ran her thumb along the seam that had troubled her, and it lay flat under her hand.“Well,” she said to the empty room. “Look at
Elara pressed her hand flat on the table.The idea that someone had gone through her work while she was busy trusting people bothered her more than she wanted to show.“Can you tell who did it?”“Not from this,” Dana answered, shaking her head. “I can tell it happened, when, and from what kind of device, but anything beyond that would be a guess.”Tony studied the log for a long moment, then took off his glasses. “Ms. Whitaker, could you give us the room for a few minutes?”Dana nodded and slipped out. When the door closed, he turned his chair to face Elara.“If those log-ins came from Logan’s system, that’s evidence,” he said slowly. “It isn’t proof of who was sitting at it, but it is a fact that someone copied your work and removed your oldest files right before you disappeared.”“Like someone was preparing for my absence?” Her voice shook. “Logan?”Tony held her gaze.“His system, at least,” he said. “Whether it was his hands is what we need to find out.”Elara was silent for a few
Two days after the press conference, the conference room on the thirty-first floor had been turned into something between a lawyer’s office and a laboratory. Laptops covered the long table, external drives sat in labeled evidence bags along one wall, and a whiteboard in the corner was already crowded with Tony’s handwriting.Elara stood in the doorway with a coffee she hadn’t touched, and watched a stranger take apart her past.“Ms. Harrington, this is Dana Whitaker, and she runs the forensic team we’ve brought in.” Tony gestured to a woman in a gray cardigan who was bent over one of the laptops. “Dana, I’d like you to explain to Elara what you explained to me this morning.”Dana looked up and offered a brisk, kind smile. “Of course.” She nodded. “The short version is that the folder you made the night of the lawsuit news was a lovely idea, but I’m afraid it can’t be used for anything.”Elara blinked. “I dragged every file into it myself.”“That’s the problem.”“What do you mean?” E
Logan didn’t turn the television off even long after the press conference ended. He sat with the remote in his fist while the anchors started picking the statement apart, and he listened to every one of them say her name.Lucia Hale was the name I lived under.As if the six years they spent together had been something she wore, like a coat she’d taken off.“Turn it off, Logan.”Marielle stood in the doorway with Alex on her hip, both of them in rumpled pajamas as the sun began to go down the horizon. She had been standing there for a while, he realized, and he hadn’t heard her come in.“No,” he said plainly.“You’ve watched it four times.”“Five.” He kept his eyes on the screen, where the footage had cut back to the podium. “Look at her, Mari, and look at how she’s standing.”Marielle shook her head. “I don’t want to look at her.”“She said the marriage wasn’t valid.” The words came out lower than he meant them to. “She said it in front of the entire city, like it was a footnote.”“







