Inside

KaelThe side door off the kitchen was unlocked, the way it always had been, Reyna never bothered with extra security because she'd spent her whole career making sure other people needed it more than she did.I eased it open slowly, Elara's mother right behind me, both of us listening for any sound over the hum of the refrigerator inside."Study this way," I whispered, leading her down a hallway I could have walked blind, past photos of holidays I'd forgotten and some I hadn't, Reyna smiling in every single one like she'd never once considered any of it might come apart.The study door was closed but not locked. I eased it open and flipped on my phone's flashlight instead of the overhead light, keeping the beam low."Diego," I said quietly into the phone, still connected to the speaker with the volume turned down. "We're in. What am I looking for.""Filing cabinets, a safe, anything locked that seems out of place for a home office," Diego said. "Financial documents specifically. Bank

Last Updated : 2026-08-19

The Other Names

ElaraWe spread the folder's contents across my kitchen table at midnight, all five of us now, my father included, nobody willing to wait until morning to see exactly what Kael and my mother had pulled out of that house."There's seven names," my father said, sorting through the documents with the careful attention of someone who used to do this professionally, back before his own life got buried the same way. "Seven separate cases, going back almost fifteen years.""All connected to the Voss company," Kael said, reading over his shoulder. "All handled the same way. Money moving, records disappearing, and Reyna's signature on every single authorization."I picked up one of the folders, a name I didn't recognize, a woman named Priya Anand, dates going back nine years. "Who's this?""Former employee," my father said, scanning the attached documents. "Filed a complaint about safety violations at one of the manufacturing plants. The complaint disappeared. She left the company a month late

Last Updated : 2026-08-19

Six Months Ago

KaelNone of us slept that night. By six in the morning, Diego had pulled everything he could find on the timeline, and we were back around the kitchen table with fresh coffee and the same exhausted dread from hours earlier."Walk me through it again," I said. "Slowly this time."Diego shared his screen through the laptop, a timeline stretched across it, dates and transfers laid out in careful order. "Six months ago, Reyna opened two new accounts overseas. Small deposits at first, nothing that would trip alarms. Around the same time, she starts increasing contact with Doyle, based on communication records I managed to pull.""Doyle was already working for her by then," I said slowly. "Before any of this with Elara even started.""Looks that way." Diego zoomed in on a specific date. "Four months ago, right before Elara's heat cycle apparently shifted early, there's a transfer to a pharmaceutical research contact. Someone specializing in suppressant formulations."My stomach turned. "Ar

Last Updated : 2026-08-21

What Kane Knew

ElaraTomorrow felt too far away and much too close at the same time.We spent the hours before Kane's meeting with prosecutors doing what we could, which mostly meant waiting, the same exhausting waiting that had defined this entire month. Diego kept digging. My father sat with Mom going through the other six names in Reyna's folder, cross referencing them against public records, trying to find anyone still local enough to reach.Kael barely sat still the whole day."You should sleep," I told him around midnight, finding him still at the kitchen table scrolling through Diego's timeline for what had to be the tenth time."I can't. Not until we know what he actually tells them tomorrow." He rubbed both hands over his face, exhaustion carved deep into every line of him. "If he confirms she was running things, this becomes real in a way it hasn't been yet. Official. My father's going to have to answer for trusting her this long, and I'm going to have to figure out what that means for the

Last Updated : 2026-08-21

The Meeting

KaelThe morning of Kane's meeting with prosecutors arrived gray and overcast, the kind of sky that made the whole city look like it was holding its breath along with the rest of us.None of us had really slept. I dozed for maybe an hour on Elara's couch sometime after three, waking every time my phone buzzed with a notification that turned out to be nothing important, my body too wired to let me rest properly even when my mind was exhausted enough to beg for it.By seven, everyone was back at the kitchen table, the same table that had hosted more of these conversations over the last month than I ever could have imagined a single piece of furniture surviving."Diego's source said the meeting starts at nine," I said, checking my phone again out of habit more than necessity. "We probably won't hear anything concrete until at least noon, maybe later depending on how long they spend going through the recordings.""Five hours of waiting," Elara said, wrapping both hands around a mug of cof

Last Updated : 2026-08-25

Quiet

ElaraTwo days after Reyna's arrest, my mother suggested something that felt almost absurd given everything we'd just lived through."Go somewhere," she said, setting a mug of tea in front of me at the kitchen table. "Both of you. Not to solve anything. Not to investigate anything. Just go somewhere and be normal for an afternoon.""Normal," I repeated, like the word belonged to a language I'd forgotten how to speak."You've spent a month being a detective, a witness, a headline, and a hostage to your own phone." She sat down across from me, tired eyes softer than they'd been in weeks. "I think you've earned a few hours of just being eighteen."I texted Kael before I'd even finished my tea, and by early afternoon we were sitting on a blanket at the edge of the lake outside town, the same lake his family used to take him to as a kid, before company retreats and boardrooms replaced anything resembling a childhood."This feels strange," Kael admitted, stretching out beside me, sunlight c