Page 384 of Scars of Fate

“I’m choosing to believe you.”

Hawk approached our joint box.

Its lock remained intact.

“No signs of forced entry.”

Minser’s people hadn’t opened it.

They couldn’t.

The account still required both of us.

Wynn moved to one side of the box.

I took the other.

Two biometric panels activated.

“Ready?” she asked.

“Yes.”

We placed our thumbs against the readers.

The locks released simultaneously.

The box opened.

Inside rested the encrypted drive containing Fate’s source code and the evidence Wynn had spent months gathering.

Still there.

Still secure.

Beneath it lay the photograph from our wedding.

Wynn wore white.

I wore my dress uniform.

We were smiling at each other as though the future couldn’t touch us.

Wynn lifted the picture carefully.

“I put this here.”

“When?”

“The day we opened the account.”

“Why?”

“Because I thought we might come back someday and laugh at how young we looked.”

I studied the two people in the photograph.

They hadn’t known what waited for them.