THEY LAUGHED WHEN I SAVED AN OLD WOMAN—THEN FIVE BLACK SUVS STOPPED OUTSIDE THE CAFÉ

I spent exactly eleven seconds wondering whether Marco was the traitor before I hated myself for it.

He was still sitting across the street in the black sedan when Celeste hung up. Through the café window, I could see the glow of his phone against his face. He looked ordinary in the most dangerous way possible: a man I had trusted so long I had stopped noticing how much access he had to our lives.

That was the point, wasn't it?

A person inside Gabriel's security operation would know which doors were watched, which routes were used, when Elena had doctor appointments, when Noah stayed late painting, when Gabriel slept at my apartment instead of his own house.

I locked the front door and called Detective Medina.

Not Gabriel.

Medina answered on the third ring.

“Tell me you aren't calling because you followed a suspect into a warehouse.”

“Celeste called.”

Silence.

“Start over. Slowly.”

I told her everything, including Celeste's warning about someone inside Gabriel's security operation. I also told her I could see Marco outside and that the thought made me feel like garbage.

“Do not confront anyone,” Medina said. “Do not change your behavior dramatically. I'm sending officers to your building and to the café. You are not going home alone.”

“Marco is supposed to take me.”

“Then let him wait. I'll handle the next step.”

Ten minutes later, an unmarked police car pulled up behind the sedan. Medina arrived in the passenger seat. She came inside through the kitchen entrance and found me standing beside a tray of cooling bread like it had personally betrayed me.

“You did the correct thing,” she said.

“I feel disgusting.”

“Good. Means you understand suspicion isn't proof.”

She asked me to call Gabriel and tell him only that Celeste had contacted me and was alive. Medina would handle the security concern directly with him.

Gabriel answered immediately.

“Norah?”

“She's alive.”

For two seconds there was no sound.

“Celeste?”

“Yes.”

“Where?”

“I don't know.”

That part was true.

“Did she speak to Lily?”

“No. She was afraid. Medina is here.”

He exhaled so hard I heard it through the phone.

“I'm coming.”

“Wait for Medina to call you.”

“Why?”

“Because this is bigger than me.”

He heard something in my voice.

“What aren't you telling me?”

I closed my eyes.

“We agreed not to hide important truths from each other. I'm not hiding it. I'm letting the detective control information that may affect an active investigation.”

A pause.

“That sounds suspiciously responsible.”

“It feels terrible.”

“I'll wait.”

That might have been the most important sentence he said all week.

Medina met Marco outside.

I watched through the glass as she spoke to him. His posture changed almost immediately. He looked toward the café, then deliberately looked away. He handed her his phone without argument and made another call from the police car.

An hour later, Gabriel arrived with a different driver.

Marco did not come inside.

“What happened?” I asked.

Gabriel rubbed a hand over his face. “Medina advised me to temporarily rotate my security personnel and preserve access logs. Marco agreed. He's furious, mostly because he thinks he should have detected the leak.”

“You believe him?”

“I believe I don't know enough yet.”

Growth looked annoyingly good on him.

Celeste called Medina directly the next morning using the prepaid phone. She agreed to meet in a public location under police supervision. Not a warehouse. Not an abandoned church. A suburban library meeting room with a children's mural of planets painted along one wall.

Marta brought Lily only after investigators confirmed Celeste was physically safe and the family-services worker approved the reunion.

I stayed outside the room.

So did Gabriel.

We heard Lily cry “Mom!” through the door.

Gabriel turned away and pressed both hands to his mouth.

I took his arm.

“You okay?”

“No.”

“Good answer.”

Celeste emerged twenty minutes later.

She was thinner than in the old photographs. Her dark hair had been cut unevenly at the jaw, as if she'd done it herself. A fading bruise marked one cheek. She looked at Gabriel for a long time.

“You have Matteo's eyes when you're angry,” she said.

Gabriel's throat worked. “You should have told us about Lily.”

“I know.”

“Why didn't you?”

“Because your family scared me.”

The words landed without decoration.

Gabriel flinched.

Celeste didn't apologize.

“After Matteo died, I was pregnant and twenty-seven and convinced somebody had killed him because of what he found at the docks. Anthony's lawyers offered to help me ‘settle anything outstanding.’ Maybe they meant kindness. I heard a threat. I left.”

Elena had chosen not to attend the first reunion, saying Celeste deserved one conversation without four generations of Russo emotion crowding the room. I suddenly understood why.

Medina joined us with a notebook.

“Celeste says the security leak may be tied to a man named Cole Raines.”

Gabriel's expression sharpened.

“Cole manages route logistics.”

“Meaning?” I asked.

“He schedules drivers, coordinates protective travel, receives hospital and event routes.”

My stomach dropped.

Celeste nodded. “I saw him with Stefan twice. The first time was years ago at Dock 14. The second was three weeks ago outside Victor's old accountant's office.”

“You're sure it was him?” Medina asked.

“I remembered the ring.”

“What ring?”

“A silver signet ring with a black stone. He kept tapping it against the steering wheel.”

Gabriel's face went blank.

“Cole wears that ring every day.”

Medina instructed Gabriel not to contact him.

They checked his employment file.

Cole had reported for work that morning.

At 10:15, he received a routine schedule request.

At 10:22, he left Russo headquarters through the parking garage.

At 10:31, his company phone stopped transmitting.