The offices of Carter & Associates occupied a high-floor suite in a Midtown glass tower that hummed with the quiet, expensive vibration of billable hours. Elena moved through the hallways with a silence that had become her greatest weapon. In the two and a half years she had spent here, she had mastered the art of being "The Ghost"—the person who was always there, always efficient, and yet fundamentally overlooked.
To Daniel Carter, she was the ultimate administrative asset. She was the one who could untangle a knot in a forensic audit that had stumped senior partners, yet she never asked for a title change or a public accolade. She was a mother with a young child and a heavy university load; Carter assumed her lack of ambition was a result of her circumstances. He viewed her as a woman w
