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“No.” Marcus pulled up another clip of Emilia walking back to the Research Pavilion. The woman appeared on a second camera, this time clearly in the same space as Emilia. She changed direction and began walking toward Emilia. Then her phone rang. She stopped, answered it, and turned back toward the main gates.

I felt something cold move through me.

“Should Dr. Rossi know?”

“No.” The answer came before I considered any other. Victoria was watching. She had already come once asking for Emilia, and now she had almost approached her. I did not know what Victoria wanted. There was nothing Emilia could do with unanswered questions.

“I think you should reconsider. If she’s the one Victoria is watching, she should have a say in how she responds.”

I nodded. “It can also be a burden when we have nothing concrete to give her. Increase security around Emilia, discreetly. Continue the investigation. And inform me immediately with updates.”

“Yes, sir.”

* * *

I walked back to the penthouse.

It had become a different place since Emilia entered it. Whenever she wasn’t there, it reverted to what it had once been. I preferred what it had become. Winston noticed the difference as well. He waited near the entrance in the evenings, raising his head at every sound in the corridor before eventually deciding she wasn’t coming and returning to bed.

I understood the feeling. Sometime during the past few weeks, I had stopped imagining a future without Emilia in it. I hadn’t noticed when it happened, only that it had. That morning reminded me that the future was never guaranteed.

I reached for my phone.

“There is something I’d like to arrange.”

* * *

Emilia

Alexander found me between the second and third trial review of the morning. I looked up and he was at the laboratory door.

It seemed like he had been standing there a while, but I had only just sensed his presence. Something was different. The changes weren’t visible or tangible. He was dressed as he always was, carried the same confidence, and wore the composed expression I had been learning to read over the past several weeks. Yet something about his attention had sharpened.

As we walked into the corridor, I noticed his gaze briefly sweep toward the laboratory entrance before he held the door open for me. A moment later, Marcus crossed the opposite end of the hall, speaking quietly into his earpiece before disappearing through a security door.

I frowned. “Has something happened?”

“Marcus is following up on a security matter.”

“Anything serious?”

“Nothing has been confirmed.”

He asked about the trial data. He asked about Priya’s preparations for Vienna, which were nearly complete. I answered longer than I had intended because he listened the way he always did, with complete attention, as though nothing else in the building mattered until I had finished speaking.

When I mentioned I was planning to work late, he said, “Come with me tonight instead.”

“Where?”

“The opera house.”

“Is there a performance?”

“Just something I’d like to share with you.” His real expression surfaced, the way it did more often lately. “I thought you might like to see it.”

“What is it?”

A small smile touched the corner of his mouth, disappearing almost as quickly as it had arrived. It wasn’t secretive so much as pleased, the expression of a man looking forward to something.