Chapter 5

I was in Liam's study, ostensibly searching for an old insurance document he'd asked me to find. My movements were slow, my body still aching from the fall. My hand brushed against a row of heavy, leather-bound law books on the bottom shelf, and I felt a slight give. Curiosity, a long-dormant instinct, pricked at me. I pushed gently. A section of the bookshelf clicked open, revealing a hidden, soundproofed compartment.

Inside, nestled amongst a collection of rare whiskeys, was not jewelry or secret business papers. It was a burner phone, sleek and anonymous.

My heart began to pound a heavy, suffocating rhythm against my ribs. With trembling fingers, I switched it on. The message history was short, but it was a conversation that methodically dismantled the last remnants of my world. It was a series of encrypted texts between Liam and Seraphina from the day of my fall.

Liam: Already done. The system will be down from 2:30 to 4:30. No recordings, no logs. Make it look convincing, but for God's sake, be careful. Just a fall.

I didn't take the phone. I didn't have to. I simply held my own phone over it and, with a hand that was now perfectly steady, took a series of crystal-clear photographs of the screen. The last of my illusions, the final, desperate hope that he was merely weak and not actively malicious, had been incinerated.

I never went back to that house as a resident again.

My new sanctuary became the hushed, anonymous halls of the city's grand public library. Surrounded by the quiet, comforting rustle of turning pages and the low, constant hum of public-access computers, I began to build my escape. I used their terminals, shielded by layers of encrypted emails and virtual private networks, to contact an immigration lawyer my father had recommended years ago, for a "what if" scenario I never thought I'd use.

Step by meticulous, clandestine step, I started the process of systematically erasing Elara Vance. In her place, in the quiet, shadowed corners of the digital world, Elara Dubois was slowly, carefully, being reborn.