Sleep never came.
I lay awake until darkness surrendered to the dull gray light creeping through the curtains. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw Emily's pendant swinging beneath her sweater... and Damien standing behind me in Noah's office, calmly erasing every trace of her existence with a single keystroke.
People lied.
Computers didn't.
Yet somehow he'd made both obey him.
Fifteen years had taught me that every lie left a fingerprint.
Emily was the first mystery that left nothing at all.
Somewhere in the world, a little girl existed.
Yet every system insisted she didn't.
That wasn't coincidence.
That was power.
Who had taught him that?
More importantly...
Who possessed enough power to make governments forget a child existed?
I realized something then that I hadn't allowed
