NOT THE BRIDE HE WANTED
And then, near the very top of the conversation, the account name attached to the messages sent to Malik.
Not Derek Whitfield.
Not Marcus Voss.
ProxyClient_774, an anonymous username with no identifying details attached at all, the kind of deliberately obscured account someone created specifically to avoid exactly this moment, exactly this discovery.
"It's anonymous," Temi said, disbelief and frustration crashing over her at once. "All of this, and we still don't know who's actually behind it." She pressed her fingers against her temples, the exhaustion of two sleepless nights finally threatening to overwhelm the adrenaline that had carried her this far.