's chest. She felt it there first, a hollow, then a rush of heat. She coul

Zara called

moved with calm that felt like a mask. "They picked

old patience. A box in the shop might hold spice money, a relic of her mothe

said. "They're thieves. The

her braid slapped her shoulder. "

ok that measured risk and cost. "We'll send a team," he said. "Jordan

ion. He was offering control. She wanted to punch the glass tower a

. Not with your men." Her fingers fou

hat, fierce. "Go

eople. Leah moved like she had trained for every crisis. Aryan walked beside Elena for a few ste

as the same outside them-cars, people, lights-but the world had shifted, like a seam pulled tight. She kept thinking abo

screens. Two men in plain clothes were lifting boxes into a white van. One of them had a ba

t. Zara grabbed her elbow.

shed through the crowd. The plain clothes men froze. They looked startled. One drop

rowd murmured. The two thieves reached for the van and for the boxes. Then hands came from the team and lifted them up. On

looked messy-chairs upturned, a pile of fabric in a corner, a board with sketches knocked to the floor. Two machines sat where they always had, one still

d now by security. "Those things are-those are mine." H

ht them taking boxes. They've been seen hitting tailors in the neig

ar. Her fingers wandered over the table where her mother's old sewing kit lay. Nothing too precious seemed gone at first glance. B

ead what was printed in nea

LE ATELIER

she felt the letters like cold metal. "This isn't right," she said.

"Could be fenced goods. Could be someo

. Her mouth tasted like penn

e floor. It was a photograph. Her mother stood in it, smiling next to a rack of dresses. Handwriting scrawled on the back: Stolen patter

le - Col

not proof. It might be a plant. It might be an accident. But it lan

taking things for C

ke the thing it was-proof and poison both. Her mind flashed through the contract she had

re?" she asked, and

wered. "He's one of a few names. He works with a broker who

maller now, like something that could be folded and crushed. She thought of her b

find out," he said, and his voice had a

d was recording them, his face blank. At the corner of the table, a scrap of red fabri

e it again in her head: the way it held the shoulder. Her mouth went dr

was cuffed. The men were being led away. But Elena's hands were full o

"Someone wants me to know," she said, voice small and steady like

e watched with hands in his pockets. He smiled the

n who had the power to make announcements, to buy stories, to take names. He

eath h

r half a second an

. But she knew the shape of betrayal