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Something cold moved through me. I checked the timestamps. Just after midnight. Long after I had left for the evening. Did they try to log in remotely or had someone actually been here? Following protocol, I contacted Information Security and spent the next several minutes answering questions I had hoped never to hear.

The laptop was in my office. No files had been accessed. The data had not been compromised. That should have been reassuring, but it did very little to settle my nerves. I had spent years protecting Aurora from funding shortages, staffing challenges, regulatory delays, and every imaginable research setback. The possibility that someone might attempt to gain unauthorized access to the project had never felt as real as it did now.

I had just ended the call when a knock sounded at the door. “Come in.”

The door opened, and my expectation of finding an exhausted IT specialist vanished immediately. Alexander stepped into the office, his broad shoulders filling the doorway. I hadn’t expected him to come himself.

“I was informed there had been a security incident involving Aurora,” he said. His voice remained perfectly composed. The IT team had already assured me everything was secure. Alexander’s presence suggested they were taking the incident very seriously.

“It appears Aurora has become more interesting than I realized,” I said, attempting a composure I didn’t feel.

His gaze moved briefly to the workstation before returning to me. “Are you all right?”

The question caught me off guard. I looked toward the gardens beyond the windows. “The IT team assures me everything is secure.”

“That wasn’t what I asked.”

My fingers tightened slightly around the edge of the desk. “No,” I admitted quietly. “I’m not entirely sure I am.” Nothing had been stolen. All the safeguards had worked exactly as intended. And yet, someone had still tried. The fact that they’d left with nothing raised more questions. Would they try again? What were they looking for?

He paused before continuing. “Nothing was accessed. No data was compromised. The system functioned exactly as it was designed to function.” The certainty in his voice was difficult to argue with. He stepped closer to the desk. “Yesterday, your team spent half a day convinced there was a serious problem with Trial Twenty-Seven. All that worry and it turned out to be a mislabeled sample.”

My head lifted and I stared at him. How did he know about Trial Twenty-Seven? The question joined the growing collection of things about Alexander I couldn’t explain.

He continued. “An apparent crisis that proved to be considerably less dramatic than it first appeared. There is every reason to believe this will prove to be the same. I’ll take additional precautions until we know more.”

“Do you think your team will figure out where it came from?”

Something shifted in his expression. The change was so subtle, I might have imagined it. His features remained composed, but the warmth vanished for a second. “Yes,” he said.

I hesitated, then decided I’d rather feel foolish than keep thinking about it. “There’s something else. Last night, someone left coffee in my office while I was at the printer. I never saw them. I don’t know how they could have gotten by me undetected.”

He looked up at me. “That was me.”

I stared at him.

“You were working late. I didn’t want to disturb you. I should have left a note. It didn’t occur to me it might frighten you. For that, I’m sorry.”

“How did you get past me? I was facing my office the entire time.”

“You weren’t watching the lab. You were reading the report in your hand. I walked directly past you and didn’t want to disturb you while you were so focused.”

“You walked right past me?” I asked, shocked at my own unawareness.

“Twice.”

I laughed. “Apparently, my powers of observation deteriorate significantly after sundown.”

The corner of his mouth turned upward and he took a step toward me before stopping himself. For a fraction of a second, I thought he might reach for me. I realized I would not have stepped back if he had. Then he put his hands in his pockets the way a man does when he has decided not to use them. The space where his touch might have been stayed empty.

* * *

Back in my suite, the evening had gone dark and quiet.

I changed into comfortable clothes, set out what I would need for the following morning, and switched on the lamp beside the sofa. Gentle music played while the electric fireplace cast a soft glow across the room. Tea in hand, I began the familiar process of unwinding from the day. It had been a stressful week. Between Trial Twenty-Seven, the mysterious cup of coffee, and the unauthorized access, I realized that a day off with Charlotte was exactly what I needed.

My thoughts drifted to Alexander. Bringing me coffee when I worked late had been thoughtful. Coming to check on me after the login attempts had been thoughtful too. The more time I spent with him, the more evidence I had that his attention was genuine. It should have made him easier to understand. Somehow, it didn’t.

He had walked directly past me twice, close enough to leave something on my desk, and I had noticed nothing. The coffee was no longer a mystery. How easily someone could move around me unseen was.