2026-05-21 00:16:03Vanessa was sitting on one of the velvet sofas now, one hand pressed against her forehead as she cursed under her breath. Her makeup had smudged, and the confidence she’d walked in with was gone.
The music eventually started again, but the party never recovered.
People still whispered in clusters. Some pretended to laugh. Others quietly deleted videos from their phones.
Erick’s attention drifted toward the back of the lounge.
Michel had cornered the young blonde woman near the emergency exit. He held her arm a little too tightly while speaking into her ear.
She looked frightened.
Erick walked over as if he had nowhere else to be. “Mind if I borrow your seat?” he asked.
Without waiting for an answer, he settled onto the sofa beside the young woman.
Michel forced a smile. “We’re in the middle of something.”
“So am I.”
Michel’s smile thinned.
After a long second, he released the girl’s arm.
“I’ll be right back,” he said to her before walking away.
The moment he disappeared into the crowd, Erick spoke quietly.
“How old are you?”
“…Twenty.”
He studied her face. She looked away first.
“Did Michel tell you what happens after the pictures?”
Her breathing caught. “He… he said they just wanted photos to make someone jealous.”
“And after that?”
She swallowed. “I don’t know.”
Erick reached into his pocket and folded several hundred-dollar bills beneath her handbag.
“In two minutes, walk through the kitchen.”
She looked at the money but didn’t touch it.
“Don’t use the main elevator,” Erick continued. “If Michel stops you, tell him I made you uncomfortable, and you decided to leave.”
“Will he believe me?”
“He’ll want to.”
She frowned. “If he admits anything else, he’ll have to explain why he brought you here.”
Understanding slowly spread across her face.
She gave a nervous nod.
Exactly two minutes later, she stood.
Michel intercepted her halfway across the room.
She said something Erick couldn’t hear.
Michel frowned immediately. “What?”
She shook her head, pointed once toward Erick, then hurried through the kitchen doors before Michel could stop her.
Michel took two steps after her before the swinging door slammed shut.
“Damn it.”
He turned around and saw Erick just standing there, raising a glass of water like he was making a toast. Michel looked pissed. Over by the window, Dominique was ignoring the view of the city and just staring at Erick.
Erick stepped toward her, and for a moment, neither of them said a word. The silence stretched until Dominique finally broke it.
“Do you even get what you did tonight?” she asked.
“I didn’t poison Vanessa,” Erick replied.
“That’s not the point.” She crossed her arms tightly. “Everyone in this room is talking about us.”
Erick just stared at her. “Is that really what you’re worried about?”
Dominique didn’t answer immediately, and that was all the answer he needed.
“I knew they wanted to embarrass you,” she admitted. “I just thought it was some stupid prank. I didn’t think they’d actually drug the drink.”
“But you still stayed,” Erick said.
“I…”
“I actually trusted you.” He sounded calm, which only made it feel worse.
Dominique took a breath. “I want a divorce.”
“Fine.”
She looked at him, totally caught off guard. “That’s it? Just fine?”
He nodded. “Yep.”
Dominique had braced himself for a massive argument, so the fact that he just agreed was a shock.
“You’re nothing without my family.” She hissed.
Erick gave her a cold smile. “We’ll see about that.”
Suddenly, Michel stormed over. “Where is she?”
“Who?” Erick asked.
“The blonde.”
“She’s gone.”
“What did you tell her?”
“The truth.”
Michel looked like he was about to swing, but Martin grabbed his arm to hold him back. Michel shook him off and started yelling, “That girl was supposed to—”
He stopped, but it was too late.
“Supposed to do what?” Erick asked, raising an eyebrow.
Michel went pale. Martin stepped in to shut it down: “The party’s over, guys.”
“Nah,” Erick said, fixing his cuffs. “It was over the second someone decided to poison a drink.”
He headed for the elevators without glancing back.
“Erick!” Dominique called out.
He stopped, but didn’t turn around. “Where are you going?” she asked.
“Home.”
The elevator doors shut, and he finally let out a breath. Before he hit the lobby, his phone buzzed. It was a text from Aria: Victor called an emergency board meeting.
Tonight’s news is already hitting the financial district.
Erick looked at himself in the mirror and texted back: *Good.*
Marcus called.
“We got the votes,” Marcus said right away. “If we act now, Victor’s loan to Laurent Corporation is dead.”
“Hold on,” Erick said.
“Why?”
“Because Victor thinks he’s already won. He invited all the big financial reporters to the gala.”
Marcus lowered his voice. “He’s planning to announce your death publicly.”
The elevator opened. Erick stepped into the empty lobby with a little smile.
“Let him,” he said, sliding his phone into his pocket. “I want to see who sends the flowers.”
Previous Chapter
Latest Chapter
Chapter 124 — First Ripple
The medical node sat inside a quiet two-story clinic on the edge of Long Island City, the kind of place that handled private insurance and asked few questions after hours. Continuity had used it before. The residual pattern matched three earlier short-term holdings from the mirror slice.Erick’s team hit it at 15:41, forty-one minutes after Aria flagged the early movement order.Ivan took the rear service door. Jacqueline covered the street exit. Erick and one additional operator entered through the side stairwell Aria had unlocked with a residual utility pulse that looked like ordinary grid noise. Remi remained at the command site with her mother and Dominique, running the external watch.The two Continuity handlers were already in motion when the team cleared the second-floor corridor. One reached for a compact weapon. Ivan ended the movement without a shot. The second ha
Chapter 123 — New Terms
Kane’s message arrived on the shielded line at 14:07.No greeting. No residual encryption theater. Just a short string of coordinates, a time stamp seventeen minutes out, and a single line of text:Permanent-site breach is circulating. I have a location. New terms. Meet or lose it.Erick read it once. Aria confirmed the coordinates resolved to a decommissioned waterfront warehouse on the Red Hook side, quiet enough for a conversation and exposed enough that neither party could easily trap the other.He did not waste time debating.“Ivan, hold the second courier pursuit at soft distance. Do not engage. Jacqueline, maintain the box on Hale. No movement. Aria, full residual sweep of the warehouse grid. I want every camera and every possible exit marked before I arrive.”Remi stepped closer to the table. “You’re going alone?”“Kane does not deal if the room is full. Ivan will be on the perimeter. You stay here with the residual map and your mother. If Continuity moves on any of the remain
Chapter 122—Closing Files
The command room held the residual tension of a failed intercept.Aria’s screens still showed the second courier vehicle cutting hard through Midtown traffic, now moving with the deliberate unpredictability of a team that knew it was burned. The distribution van on West 28th had gone dark thirty seconds after the dead-man pulse. Continuity had activated the remaining packets remotely and pulled their handlers offline.Erick stood at the main table, issuing short, precise orders. Ivan was already redirecting to cut off possible exit routes. Jacqueline held the box on Victor Hale’s townhouse. The captured courier remained secured and silent in the secondary vehicle.None of that stopped the private fracture opening on the other side of the room.Remi had not moved since Aria confirmed the remote activation. She stared at the legal pad with the three residual names, then at her mother, then at Dominique.When she spoke, her voice was quiet enough that only the four of them could hear it.
Chapter 121—Dead-Man Pulse
Ivan’s team hit the Vermilyea walk-up at 09:17.Soft knock. No answer. Second knock. Still nothing. The heat signature on the third floor had not moved in twelve hours. Aria confirmed the phone was still powered and stationary.Ivan gave the signal. The lock yielded in four seconds. They entered clean.The apartment was small, ordered, and empty of life. A single mug sat on the counter, coffee gone cold. The bed was made. The phone lay face-down on the nightstand, still pinging its location. No signs of struggle. No forced exit.The residual carrier was gone.Ivan’s voice came flat over the channel. “Site is clean. Subject vacated. Phone left behind as decoy. We’re checking residual traces now.”Erick stood in the command room of the secondary site, eyes on the live feed. Remi was beside him. Dominique remained at the far table with her mother’s legal pad. Jacqueline was still boxed on Victor Hale’s townhouse.“How long?” Erick asked.Aria answered. “Last genuine movement on the phone
Chapter 120—The Residuals
Remi’s mother was sitting at the small table in the back room with a legal pad and a black pen. It looked weird having a paper pad in a place full of screens and encrypted feeds, but she wouldn’t use a tablet. She claimed paper didn’t leave a digital trail.Erick stood across from her. Remi sat right next to her mother, just in case her hand started shaking again and she needed help.Dominique stayed by the door with her arms crossed, just listening in since nobody told her to leave. Ivan was guarding the outside. Jacqueline was still watching Victor Hale’s townhouse up on the Upper East Side. Aria was on the line, staying quiet and only chiming in when something important happened.The older woman wrote down three names in neat print. She didn’t look up until she was done with the last one.“These are the ones I am certain still carry active Legacy residual status,” she said. “Not historical. Not closed. Active.”Erick read the names upside down.The first belonged to a woman in her
Chapter 119 — Containment
Aria traced a signal from the Laurent estate node to a discreet Upper East Side townhouse. At 7:19 a.m., the house received the packet, sent a four-second acknowledgment, and both went dark.Erick didn’t rush. After securing the perimeter and having Aria research the house’s history, he entered the side room. The door sealed with a magnetic click, leaving him with Dominique; she looked composed, but her rigid shoulders and twitching fingers betrayed her.“You asked for a private conversation,” he said. “You have it.”She did not sit.“The packet went to a private address.” Her eyes stayed on him. “Who lives there?”“We don’t know yet.”“But you’re already surrounding it.”“Yes.”Her mouth tightened.“You are treating this like another residual trail.”“It is a live link.”“It is under my family’s house.”“I know.”“Then stop talking to me like this is just another piece of data.”Erick said nothing.Dominique’s breath came out slowly through her nose.“That node is connected to the sam
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