Chapter 2 No.2

The door to the bedroom clicked shut behind Nathaniel, and the moment the latch engaged, the posture of the woman in the room changed.

Victoria Vane dropped her shoulders. The polite, slightly vacuous smile she had worn for the last hour vanished, replaced by a look of sharp, cold intelligence.

She didn't cry. She didn't collapse. She walked directly to the back of the walk-in closet, pushing aside rows of designer dresses that Nathaniel had bought for her-dresses she hated, dresses that were essentially costumes for the role of "Mrs. Sterling."

She reached behind a panel in the wall, her fingers finding the hidden latch instantly. The panel popped open, revealing a small, high-security safe.

She pressed her thumb against the scanner. It beeped once, a low, affirmative tone. The door swung open.

Inside, there was no jewelry. There were no stacks of cash. There was a burner phone, a sleek, custom-built laptop with no branding, and a Glock 19 with two spare magazines. She also grabbed Nathaniel's spare smartphone, a device he rarely used but kept charged for emergencies-perfect for what she needed.

Victoria took the laptop and the phones. She sat down on the floor of the closet, surrounded by fifty thousand dollars' worth of shoes, and booted up the machine.

She didn't connect to the penthouse Wi-Fi. That would be amateur hour. Instead, she plugged a small, black satellite dongle into the USB port, establishing a direct, encrypted uplink independent of the building's surveillance grid.

Her fingers flew across the keyboard. She didn't use the trackpad. She typed in a series of commands that bypassed the standard operating system, launching a secure interface.

A chat window popped up. The username on the other end was simply "Mouse."

Mouse: File received?

Victoria: Received.

Mouse: Subject: Julia Evans. Medical records from Zurich attached. Spoiler alert: She's healthier than I am.

Victoria opened the file. Her eyes scanned the data rapidly. Blood work, imaging scans, doctor's notes. It was a masterpiece of forgery, but Mouse had found the metadata errors. The dates didn't align. The doctor who supposedly signed the oncology report had been dead for three years.

She wasn't dying. She never was.

Victoria closed the file.

Mouse: Are you sad?

The cursor blinked. Victoria looked at the words. Was she sad? She felt a dull ache, a phantom pain where her hope used to be. She had loved Nathaniel. She had loved him enough to hide who she was, to play the fool, to let him believe he was the sun and she was just a planet orbiting him.

But love wasn't enough when the other person treated you like an obligation.

Victoria: No.

She hit enter.

Victoria: Monitor Nathaniel's private accounts. Flag any large transfers to Julia Evans or shell companies associated with her. I want to know who is funding her little resurrection.

She closed the laptop and shoved it into her bag. She stood up and stripped off the silk nightgown. She dressed quickly in black trousers, a black turtleneck, and boots. The clothes were expensive, cut from Italian fabric, but they were functional. They allowed for movement.

She packed a single suitcase. She took her laptop, her weapon, and the phones. She left the diamonds. She left the furs. She left the wedding ring on the dresser, face down.

She picked up the burner phone and dialed a number from memory. It rang once.

"Report," a deep, gravelly voice answered.

"It's done," Victoria said. "I signed the preliminary papers."

There was a pause on the other end. Then, a sigh that sounded like a growl.

"About time," Conrad Vane said. "I was beginning to think you enjoyed playing house with that idiot."

"I didn't enjoy it," Victoria said softly. "I was trying to make it work."

"He's a Sterling," Conrad spat. "They don't know how to love anything but their own reflections. Do you want the jet? I can have it at Teterboro in forty minutes."

"No," Victoria said. "I have loose ends to tie up here. Julia Evans is a fraud, Dad. Someone is pulling her strings. I need to find out who before I leave."

"Be careful, Victoria. You're emotional. Emotional operatives get killed."

"I'm not emotional," she said, her voice hard. "I'm divorced."

"Same thing," Conrad grunted. "Do you need money?"

"I have my own reserves," Victoria said dryly. "I'll manage until the settlement clears."

"Good girl. Come home when you're done playing detective."

The line went dead. Victoria deleted the call log.

She walked out of the bedroom. She didn't look back. She took the elevator down to the lobby, the silence of the lift amplifying the sound of her own breathing.

Her phone buzzed. It was a notification from her own private offshore bank. She had moved her emergency funds-a modest but sufficient sum she had kept hidden from Nathaniel-into a liquid account. It wasn't the Sterling fortune, but it was enough for war.

The elevator doors opened. The doorman, a kind older man named Henry, looked at her suitcase.

"Going on a trip, Mrs. Sterling?"

Victoria smiled at him. It was the first genuine smile she had worn all day.

"Just Victoria, Henry. And yes. A long one."

She walked out into the cool Manhattan night. She hailed a cab, giving the driver the address of the St. Regis Hotel. She needed a neutral ground, somewhere public yet private, to plan her next move.