I came home at four in the afternoon. The apartment was quiet. Too quiet. I set my bag on the hall table and slipped off my shoes. My feet ached. I'd walked six blocks instead of taking a car because I needed the air, needed the noise of the city to drown out the noise in my head.
I walked into the foyer and stopped.
The brooch was on the floor. My mother's brooch. The diamond one she'd worn on her wedding day, the one she'd held in her palm the night before she died and pressed into mine. The platinum setting was bent. The diamonds—small ones circling the center stone—were scattered across the marble like stars that had fallen out of the sky.
I didn't move. I just stood there, staring.
Lilly came around the corner from the living room. She had a glass of wine in her good hand. The other one was still bandaged. She glanced down at the floor, then up at me.
"Oh," she said. "Was that important?"
I couldn't speak. My throat had closed.
She stepped closer, careful not to let her bare feet touch the glass. "It was on the mantel. I bumped it with my elbow when I was dusting." She tilted her head. "It looked like costume jewelry. I didn't realize."
I knelt down. My hands shook as I picked up the largest piece—the center stone, still attached to a fragment of platinum. The metal was warm from the sunlight that came through the window. My mother's hands had been warm too, that last night. I remembered.
"Maren." Cole's voice came from the doorway behind me. I didn't turn around. "What's going on?"
Lilly's voice went soft. Wounded. "I accidentally knocked something off the mantel. I said I was sorry."
I heard Cole's footsteps. He stopped beside Lilly. I still didn't look up.
"It was my mother's," I said quietly.
Silence. Then Cole sighed. "It's just a brooch, Maren."
I lifted my head. He was standing with his arm around Lilly's waist. She leaned into him, her face pressed against his shoulder. She looked at me over the bandaged hand.
"Stop being dramatic about a piece of glass," Cole said. He turned and walked back toward the living room. Lilly followed. Her wine glass caught the light as she disappeared around the corner.
I stayed on the floor. I picked up every fragment I could find. Some were so small they cut my fingertips. I didn't feel it. I gathered them all into my palm—diamonds, platinum, tiny shards of the past—and carried them upstairs.
In the bathroom, I found the velvet pouch my mother had kept the brooch in. Navy blue, soft as skin. I poured the pieces inside and pulled the drawstring closed. Then I sat on the floor with my back against the tub and held the pouch in both hands.
I pressed my thumb against my ring finger. Hard. Harder. Until the ache spread up my wrist and into my forearm. The pain was clean. Simple. I understood it.
I thought about my mother's hands. I thought about the night I knelt outside my father's study in the rain, begging him to save a man who would one day stand in my foyer and call her memory "a piece of glass." I thought about five years of making myself small enough, quiet enough, invisible enough to be loved.
I thought about the fact that it hadn't worked.
I don't know how long I sat there. Long enough for the light to change. Long enough for the apartment to go quiet again. When I finally stood up, my legs were stiff. I set the velvet pouch on the shelf above the sink, next to the orchid Jensen had sent three months ago. The petals were still white. Still perfect.
I walked into the bedroom and picked up my phone.
Mr. Henderson answered on the second ring.
"I need you to prepare the team," I said. My voice didn't shake. "Tomorrow. Pull everyone."
There was a pause. I heard him exhale.
"It's about time," he said quietly.
"Every piece of IP," I continued. "Document everything. I want a full extraction plan by morning."
"Understood, Miss Castillo."
I hung up. I stood there in the bedroom, surrounded by lilies I was allergic to, in an apartment that had stopped being mine weeks ago. I looked at my reflection in the dark window. The woman staring back at me had my face. But her eyes were different.
Colder. Clearer.
I pressed my thumb against my ring finger one last time. Then I let go.
Downstairs, I heard Lilly laugh. Cole's voice murmured something I couldn't make out. I didn't try to listen. I didn't care anymore.
I walked to the closet and pulled out my suitcase. I didn't pack. Not yet. I just set it on the bed and left it open. A promise to myself.
Tomorrow, everything would change. Tomorrow, Cole Barnes would learn exactly what he'd lost. Tomorrow, the man who called my mother's memory "a piece of glass" would discover that glass, when shattered, leaves edges sharp enough to cut bone.
I sat on the edge of the bed and looked at the suitcase. My hands were steady. My heartbeat was slow.
Something inside me had finally, completely frozen over. And I was ready.
