CHAPTER SIX
853 Words
The First Break in the Glass
Once again, Julian stood at the edge of the clearing on the Suffolk estate, his boots sinking into the wet ground. The wind rustled the trees like whispers in a cathedral. The estate was too quiet. And the quiet here didn't calm him down; it scared him.
The earth sank too easily in some places.
And that door.
The one he shouldn't have talked to.
He hadn't told Camille about it.
He hadn't told anyone about it.
But it was still there in his sketches, not drawn but there. There was a negative space on every page, a quiet absence that changed the way everything else was present.
And yet, Camille's voice stayed in his head:
"Make a picture of what I gave you." That's all.
Camille: In the Boardroom
Camille walked into the boardroom at Devaux headquarters like a storm—smooth, calm, and too calm to be safe. Her board sat stiffly, with legal assistants and interns on either side. Camille didn't sit at the head of the table. She got up. That alone made them uneasy.
"Let's be clear," she said, putting her fingers on the glass table. "The leak of data last week didn't come from the outside. It came from this place.
There was no talking.
"I will do private interviews, get personal stories, and anyone who doesn't cooperate will be fired." You don't work for me. You are my employee. Don't mix up the two.
Rafael Moretti, who was sitting in the middle of the table, smiled a little. "Camille, you sound like you're going crazy."
She turned to him, her heart as cold as steel.
"I am. That's how I got through.
Rafael leaned back and shrugged. "We're all friends here."
She said, "No." "Everyone here is a suspect."
Tyrese is watching Julian.
Tyrese watched Julian walk the property line with a sketchpad in hand from a distance. He was a shadow in the daytime, hiding under trees and wearing boots with soft soles.
Julian crouched down next to a rock outcrop and brushed away the moss and leaves to reveal a metal panel that was built into the rock. Hidden. Not new.
Tyrese squinted his eyes.
He picked up his phone and took a picture without saying anything.
Then he said to himself, "What the hell are you building, Camille?"
Julian—Dinner with Ellie
That night, Julian met Ellie at a small pub in Shoreditch that was hidden between two alleys. Before he could say no, she ordered him a pint.
She said, "You look like s**t," with half a smile.
"I'm doing fine."
"Are you getting involved?"
Julian didn't respond right away.
"She's not what I thought."
"She never is."
He added softly, "She's not evil."
Ellie agreed, "No, but she is dangerous." You don't see the lines with people like her. You keep crossing them until you're so deep inside that you forget where you came from.
Julian let out a breath. "I don't think I can leave."
Ellie's jaw got tight. "Now is the time to start looking for the exits. Before she locks them up.
Nadia—All by herself in Camille's Room
That night, long after the CEO had left the building, Nadia stood in Camille's empty private suite. She didn't turn on the lights.
She walked over to the dresser, opened the top drawer, and ran her fingers over Camille's silk scarves. They were perfectly folded and smelled faintly of her perfume.
She shut her eyes.
She saw herself in the vanity mirror when she opened them.
But the way she looked wasn't professional.
It was full of ghosts.
Possessive.
She took Camille's signature blood-red lipstick and drew a line across the mirror. Then, in small cursive letters below it, wrote:
Mine.
Then she cleaned it up before she left.
Camille—Midnight Therapy
Camille sat in Dr. Liane Deschamps' quiet home office, where the fire crackled softly behind them. She sat up straight, not like a client, but like a general asking a strategist for advice.
Camille said, "I don't need a diagnosis." "I need to be clear."
Dr. Liane bent over. "And what isn't clear?"
"I let him in." Julian. Not into my bed, but into my life. "That's worse."
"And you're afraid of losing control."
Camille whispered, "I'm not afraid of it." "I hate it."
Dr. Liane smiled, but it was hard to tell what she was thinking. "And yet, here you are." Every week.
Camille's jaw was locked.
She didn't say anything.
But her fingers tightened around the armrest.
A c***k shows up
Julian was finishing his third schematic in his studio.
He saved it to the tablet that Devaux gave him, encrypted it, and then leaned back with a sigh.
Then he saw something strange.
A shadow, just a flash, went across the top right corner of the screen.
The system had sent back a reflection.
His thoughts.
And someone else too.
Behind him.
He turned around—
There was no one there.
Only the dark.
Just quiet.
And his heart beating louder than it had before.
- Writer
