Chapter 228

• VALENTINA
• ~•~
• A stormy afternoon turned the light in my suite gray and restless. Rain lashed the windows in hard sheets. I sat on the edge of the bed with the evidence spread out around me like pieces of a broken promise. Harlan’s latest message had come through the burner earlier. I’d printed the update in the small office downstairs when no one watched. Now the pages lay open next to the stolen letter from Ricci, the photographs of documents, my handwritten timelines, the key card photo on my phone screen. Every item felt heavier than the last.