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Chapter 30

Emilia

Four weeks passed.

I took the space I needed. The betrayal was greater than I had imagined, and there were times that I did not think I could move past it. I had taken the engagement ring off, storing it in a safe place while I figured out what came next.

Alexander respected that space. He didn’t disappear or avoid me completely. I still saw him at committee meetings and in the Fellows’ Dining Room. We passed each other in the corridors and on the grounds. But he never asked me where we stood.

Victoria was alive and was not expected to suffer any long-term side effects from Helix. She was in police custody and what happened to her was no longer mine to worry about. She did not have any accomplices within Blackwood Hall, but she had been working with a private investigator. He told police he had not known what she intended and had simply been doing the work she hired him to do. Victoria’s phone calls and letters were monitored, and for the first time in months, the threat appeared to have passed.

Last week, I attended a special meeting of the Executive Board. After reviewing the security updates and restoration timeline, the Board concluded that, from an institutional standpoint, the laboratory was cleared to reopen. Alexander turned to me.

“Dr. Rossi?”

I asked a few more questions about the laboratory and the new security measures. The answers were enough.

“Aurora will reopen on Monday.”

“Then Monday it is.” Alexander concluded the meeting.

The next few days passed quickly. I had never been so excited for a Monday morning. I picked up pastries and coffee for the team as I headed toward the Research Pavilion. I set up breakfast in the adjoining conference room, and we met there to discuss our path forward.

The team had enjoyed their break, and I was glad they’d had some time for themselves. Between the move to Blackwood and the months of long hours that followed, they had earned it.

After breakfast, everyone picked up where they had left off. Priya continued preparing for her presentation in Vienna, while the rest of the team resumed the experiments and trials that had been interrupted.

Soon, Aurora sounded like itself again.

My weekly status meetings with Alexander resumed. At the first one, his gaze dropped briefly to my left hand. The place where my engagement ring had been was impossible to miss. His eyes lingered there for a moment before returning to mine.

He said nothing.

The meeting continued as it always had. We discussed Aurora’s progress, the team, and staffing requirements. Before the meeting ended, he mentioned Julian.

“Would you like me to call him about resuming the collaboration?”

“No. I’d like to do it.”

He handed me the phone without a word.

When the meeting concluded, Alexander thanked me for the update without trying to prolong it.

The following week, we did it again.

Somewhere along the way, I realized I had begun doing what I had always done when I did not know the answer to something.

I observed.

I wasn’t testing him. A test would have required creating conditions and waiting to see how he responded. I didn’t need to. Life provided enough opportunities of its own.

* * *

Observation One.

Marcus didn’t come to me, he went to Alexander. The beginning was exactly as before. The ending wasn’t.

Alexander found me in the conservatory that afternoon, where I had taken to reading because the sunlight was best there. He sat across from me and told me everything Marcus knew. Not a conclusion, there wasn’t one yet. There was an unusual access pattern in the visitor logs. Nothing alarming. Nothing that rose to the level of a threat. It was simply something careful people didn’t ignore.