By the time Ann came back to the building, her mother was staying the night and the receipt in her bag had already begun to feel like a third ID.
She told Mikel in a message, as promised, and found him in the office with his door open and his attention somewhere she could not follow.
He looked at her once, checked that she was standing, and said the Hartwell language could wait until morning. It was the closest thing to kindness he would risk on a floor with ears.
The kindness did not last the week. Soren Vale was back in the city, not as a rumor in a routing line but as a man who knew how to walk into rooms and be welcomed.
Ann first saw the name on a news alert Rhea forwarded without comment. Former Damaris partner seen at a waterfront opening. A photograph, easy smile, the kind of
