Chapter 283: What She Saw
The sun hadn’t fully risen when I left the penthouse.
I made sure the girls were still asleep—or at least resting—before I slipped out. Camille had fallen asleep on the couch with her tablet balanced against her thigh. Alexis had left a short checklist pinned to the fridge for me to review later, a habit she’d picked up whenever she had trouble sleeping. Evelyn’s blindfold was already on by the time I walked past the living room. She didn’t say anything, but I could feel her stillness shift when I passed. Sienna had curled into the blankets in my room, arms wrapped around one of my sweatshirts like she thought I wouldn’t notice.
I noticed.
The air was thin outside. Crisp. Early enough that the streets were still yawning. People moved like they weren’t quite in their own bodies yet, only beginning to remember what it meant to be human.
I took the bus to Sector 47.
The station was mostly quiet when I arrived, though the precinct had already shaken off its sleep. Lights hummed. Phones rang. The low murmur of officers starting their shifts echoed from the briefing room. A thin haze of stale coffee clung to the air like it had given up trying to be useful.
I found Grant in his usual spot—slouched beside a data terminal near the back, scrolling through two different monitors at once. He looked up the second I walked in.
"Morning," he said. "You look like hell."
"Thanks. You look like a warm mug of disappointment."
He snorted. "You’re the poet, Vale."
"Any updates?"