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“There’s been a credible security concern relating to the program,” I said. “It’s being managed. Marcus and I are handling it directly. The suspension is precautionary and I expect it to be short. I want you to know that nothing in that laboratory has been touched and nothing will be. Your work is safe. It’s the safest it has been. That’s why this decision was made.”

I watched her take the words in.

“A credible security concern,” she repeated.

“Yes.”

“Relating to Aurora?”

“Yes.”

“What is it?”

I had rehearsed every answer except the truthful one. “I’m not going to go into specifics. I need you to trust me on this. There are details it’s better you don’t have, and I promise you that’s a decision made entirely in your interest. The less you’re carrying, the safer you are. Let me handle it. Let me do this one thing.”

She looked at me for a long moment. “You’ve already decided.”

It was not a question, and it was not an accusation. It was said quietly, almost with wonder, the way you name a thing you have just seen clearly for the first time.

“I’ve decided what’s safest,” I said. “Yes.”

“No,” she said, still quietly. “That’s not…” She stopped. She looked down at the badge in her hand, and then back at me. Something in her face had changed, had gone somewhere I could not follow.

“The wing was closed before I arrived. The badges were already deactivated. Marcus was waiting. Priya was standing in the corridor.” She was not raising her voice. “You didn’t decide this ten minutes ago, Alexander. You decided it, and you arranged all of it, and you had Marcus meet me at a door that wouldn’t open, and then you brought me up here to be told.”

“Emilia—”

“You closed my laboratory this morning,” she said. “The first I knew of it was a red light.” She turned the badge over once. “Has this happened before?”

I frowned. She held my eyes.

“Have there been other times you’ve made decisions about my life without telling me?”

I opened my mouth to answer. I stopped. The collaboration. The interviews with the patients from the earlier trials. I had not thought about it until that moment. I had not understood that, to her, it belonged in the same sentence.

“Yes.”

For a moment, she simply looked at me and I watched understanding arrive. She lowered her eyes. When she looked back at me, there was no anger in her face. Only sadness.

“I told you…I told you I needed to be part of the conversation.” Her voice was so quiet that I almost didn’t hear it. She paused, as though the words required more of her than she had expected. “I needed someone to trust me enough to tell me the truth. Even when it is difficult.”

Neither of us spoke. I had no answer that did not arrive too late. I crossed the room without thinking about it. She didn’t step away at first. I reached for her hand. She looked down at it before gently drawing it back, something she had never done before. It was the smallest movement imaginable.

It felt enormous.

“Emilia.”

“I think…”

She lowered her eyes again. Almost absently, her fingers found the necklace resting against her collarbone. I watched her thumb move once across the small pendant. I had seen her do that only a handful of times. Usually when she was trying very hard to be brave. She took a slow breath.

“I think I need a little space.”

“How much space?”

“I don’t know. I suppose…I have rather a lot of unexpected free time now.” She looked down at the badge still resting in her hand.

“I’m not entirely sure what to do with time I never chose.” She looked back at me. “I’ll let you know when I’m ready to talk.”