"Absolutely not," Reyes said, the words coming out flat and immediate the moment Silas told him. "You are not walking into a meeting with a man who faked his own death for six years, alone, with no backup, the night after Isabelle put a bullet in Dominic Kade in front of you.""He was specific," Silas said, pacing the small kitchen of Marielle's apartment while morning light crept weakly through the blinds. "Alone. No one else, not even you. If I bring you, he doesn't show. And right now he's the only lead I have on what actually happened to my mother.""That's exactly the kind of condition someone sets when they want you isolated," Reyes said, his voice tightening with a frustration Silas rarely heard from him. "Silas, think about who else has been setting conditions like that lately. Isabelle wanted your trust before she'd tell you anything. Now a man who's supposedly been dead for six years wants you alone in the dark before he'll hand over proof. Does none of that strike you as th

"You followed him," Marcus said, voice cracking with fear as he stumbled back a step, recorder still clutched loosely in Silas's hand. "Isabelle, how did you.""Please," Isabelle said, something almost weary in her tone as she stepped fully into the moonlight. "Did you really believe I wouldn't have people watching a man I'd already once faked dead. You disappoint me, Marcus. I expected better instincts, even after six years of hiding."Silas moved instinctively, placing himself half a step in front of Marcus, weapon rising though he didn't yet draw it fully."You heard the recording," he said, voice low and dangerous."I assumed as much, given the timing," Isabelle said, eyes flicking briefly to the small device in his hand. "Your mother's voice. Four days before she died. I imagine it's not an easy thing to hear after twenty years of silence.""She named you," Silas said. "Before she died. She told Marcus to look to you first if anything happened to her."Something flickered across

"Augustine," Reyes repeated slowly, as though testing the shape of the accusation before allowing himself to believe it. "You're telling us the man you struck a truce with, the man you promised a final conversation before ending, might be the one who actually killed your mother.""I'm telling you what Isabelle claimed," Silas said, pacing a tight line beside the overturned crate Marco still sat on, the recorder clutched tight enough in his hand that his knuckles had gone pale. "That my mother reached out to Augustine directly, four days before that recording was made. That she believed his pride made him reasonable, that he'd want history to remember him as the man who finally answered for Jonathan's murder instead of the one who buried it further.""And four days later she was dead," Naomi finished quietly."Four days later she was dead," Silas confirmed, voice flat and hollow in a way that worried Reyes more than any amount of shouting would have.Marco, uncharacteristically subdued

"Prove it," Silas said, voice flat and unwavering despite the storm working behind his eyes. "Everything you've just told me. Prove it, or this conversation ends with you walking out that door and our truce along with it."Augustine studied him for a long moment, something almost approving in the look, as though Silas's refusal to simply accept either version of events confirmed something he'd suspected all along."Your father raised you well, even from a distance," Augustine said quietly. "Suspicion is a survival trait in this world. Very well. Proof."He reached slowly into his jacket, and both Reyes and Marco tensed instinctively, hands moving toward their own weapons, until Augustine withdrew only a folded, yellowed letter, offering it across the small table."This is the last correspondence I ever received from your mother," Augustine said. "Written three days before she died, delivered by a courier she trusted completely. I've kept it twenty years, Silas, the same way Marcus app

"She braided your hair," Marielle repeated later that evening, arms crossed loosely, an edge of amusement threading through the words despite something sharper underneath. "That's sweet. Really.""Marielle.""No, I mean it," Marielle said, though her tone said otherwise. "It's sweet that you had someone looking out for you back then. I'm glad your mother had the kindness to take someone in during a hard time.""But," Silas prompted, reading the tension plainly despite her careful tone."But she held onto your arm a little long for someone catching up with an old childhood friend," Marielle said finally, the words coming out faster than she probably intended. "And she looked at you the way people look at something they've already decided belongs to them."Silas studied her for a moment, something complicated working behind his eyes. "You noticed that from one description.""I noticed it because Reyes mentioned it too, when he told me she'd shown up," Marielle admitted. "He didn't say m