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CHAPTER 20: THE EMPTY HOUSE
The safehouse sat at the end of a quiet cul-de-sac forty minutes from Aether's headquarters, and by the time our car pulled up at eight fifteen that Sunday morning, barely an hour after Priya's coffee had gone cold on the boardroom table, two of Marcus Reyes's security team were already standing outside the open front door, radios crackling."Report," Marcus said, out of the car before it had fully stopped."No forced entry, sir. Alarm system disarmed from inside using the code we gave Mr. Pruitt himself. No struggle in any of the rooms we've checked." The security lead, a broad shouldered man named Castillo, gestured toward the open door. "Whoever left, they left calmly. Or he did, on his own.""When was the last check in performed," I asked."Two thirty this morning. Everything normal, sir. Next scheduled check was six. When my team arrived just after, the door was already unlocked and the house was empty.""Three and a half hours," Marcus said quietly. "That's a long window.""It's
CHAPTER 19: THE WAR ROOM
EthanI called the meeting for seven that morning, four hours after Harold Pruitt's safehouse door had finally closed behind him, and by the time I walked into Aether's boardroom, still wearing yesterday's clothes and a bruise darkening slowly along my jaw, Priya, Tomlin, and Marcus Reyes were already seated, waiting, coffee untouched in front of two of them."You look like you were in a fight," Priya said."I was."Tomlin set down his coffee. "Should I be concerned about liability exposure, or is this a personal matter.""Both, potentially." I took my seat at the head of the table, the city just beginning to wake up behind the glass wall at my back, early commuter traffic threading through streets that had no idea what had happened in a quiet house forty minutes outside them a few hours earlier. "Last night, a man named Harold Pruitt handed me a name connected to a twenty four year old estate liquidation. Richard Voss.""Voss." Tomlin frowned, setting his pen down. "That name's been
CHAPTER 18: BLACKOUT
The darkness dropped over the study so completely, just past twelve thirty by then, deep enough into the night that the street outside had gone silent, that for one full second I couldn't tell if my eyes were even open."Don't move," I said, low, my hand already finding Harold Pruitt's shoulder in the black to keep him from bolting toward whatever had made that sound in the hallway."That's not a fuse," he whispered, voice shaking. "I had the panel replaced two years ago. Nothing trips that whole system at once."Glass broke somewhere near the front of the house, sharp and deliberate, not the sound of an accident.I pulled my phone from my pocket and hit the one contact that mattered most in that moment."Marcus." My voice stayed level though my pulse hadn't. "We have a problem. Someone's inside the house.""I'm forty feet from the front door," Marcus said, already moving, I could hear it in his breathing. "I'm coming in.""Side entrance. Front's compromised.""Copy."I ended the call
CHAPTER 17: THE EXECUTOR
Marcus Reyes met me in the car at midnight, engine already running outside my building, forty minutes still standing between us and the address he'd found, and he started talking before I'd even closed the door."Before we get there, you need the full picture. Not just the address.""Talk fast.""The Dominion request from twenty four years ago, the one matching your adoption file inquiry. I pulled everything connected to it. Every filing, every cross reference." He merged onto the highway, city lights thinning behind us. "It led to a death certificate. Ardent family, five members, declared dead the week after a highway accident.""The accident that put me in the orphanage.""Same week. Same region." He glanced at me once before returning his eyes to the road. "A death certificate needs an underlying report to reference. So I pulled that too. The original accident file, filed by the county the night it happened.""And the photo.""Standard scene documentation. Whoever responded that mo
CHAPTER 16: THE CALL
Ethan's povI was still awake at eleven that Saturday night, six days since I'd walked out of that house with a single suitcase, going over the week's damage reports from my penthouse office, when my phone lit up with a number I hadn't expected to see again so soon.My father.I let it ring twice before I answered, mostly to make sure my voice would come out steady."Ethan.""Dad." I kept my tone flat, careful, the same voice I'd use with a stranger. "It's late.""I know. I'm sorry to call so late." A pause, long enough that I could picture him exactly, sitting somewhere in that house with a glass of something he hadn't finished, still in his gala clothes probably, choosing his words the way he always chose them when he needed something from someone."I wanted to ask you something, and I wasn't sure how else to reach you.""Ask.""How's your week been.""You didn't call me at eleven on a Saturday night to ask about my week, Dad."A short, humorless laugh on his end. "No. I suppose I
CHAPTER 15: THE GALA
Diane Carter's povI stopped by the east wing at eight on Saturday night to see if Lucas was ready for the gala.The construction crew had finished three days early, faster than the contractor promised. Standing in the doorway of what used to be two separate guest rooms, I barely recognized the space at all. Walls opened into one long suite. New oak flooring, warm and pale, replacing the dated carpet that had been there since before Ethan was born. A window seat built into the far wall where a narrow closet used to sit, the exact spot, I realized with a small, uncomfortable jolt, where Ethan once kept a desk he'd refused to let anyone help him move."You approve?" Lucas asked, buttoning his cuffs in front of the new mirror, the same mirror I'd chosen from a catalog two weeks ago without once picturing him actually standing in front of it."It's beautiful." I meant it, and the meaning of it sat strangely in my chest, pride and something else I didn't have a clean name for, tangled tog
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