door and pressed her ear against the wood. She held her breath, listenin

. She bypassed the locked computer tower and reached for the iPa

dly across the glass, opening the cloud

tapped on the one labeled "City Hall Project." Th

ead architect was listed as Chelsey Pitts. Farah's name was

t destroyed her family; they were actively erasing her, stealing her very identity as an architect. She

e hit confirm. She immediately navigated to the cloud's t

ediately and could restore from a backup or demand the files be re-uploaded. Farah needed to b

t, almost paranoid habit. She had backed up every design proposal she touched to her private email-not the final polished versions, but the early drafts with her original watermark and timest

am had stripped her name off it and refined the structural calculations. She downloaded the file, renamed it to match the exact title of the final des

r the version inside was a half-finished draft riddled with placeholder notes. By then, it would be too late to recover the origi

anner notification dropped down from the to

. Le Bernardin. Table

heiress. Brook's college obsession who had always c

as in the middle of a massive PR crisis, and his ego neede

e plan formed

ture of the iPad screen showing the dinner reservation. She set t

the coffee table, crumpled them up, and scattered them across the glass sur

ed to keep junior staff from wandering in, not to hold someone who was already inside. He had assumed fear would do the real work of keeping her in place.

typing. They stared at her, their eyes fill

down to the garage, got into her Porsche,

rs ago and barely used. She created a new disposable account and typed a message to the ano

Le Bernardin. 8 PM. Broo

he bottom of the email: The savio

annel to protect myself. Contact me here if you want mo

the send button for two

Farah let out a long, shaky breath,

rprise garage and headed crosstown toward Le Bernardin. She needed to scout th

lit entrance. A large oak tree cast deep shadows over the curb, dark enough to swallow a black Porsche whole. She backed into the space, killed

Toyota Camry with an Uber sticker on the windshield pulled up beside her. Farah lo

e went straight to the master closet. She pushed past the

. It was a blood-red, silk gown with a plunging

he began applying her makeup, using

broken victim. She looked like a predator. Ton