Chapter 27 #2
“Julian,” he says, extending a hand.
“Good to see you.”
Julian shakes it. “Marcus.”
Then he turns slightly toward me.
“Sophie Callahan, Vanguard Business. Sophie, Marcus Hale. He runs advanced systems here.”
“Nice to meet you,” I tell him.
Marcus smiles as he shakes my hand.
“Welcome. We’ve been warned you ask difficult questions.”
“That sounds dramatic.”
“It came from Legal.”
“That sounds more accurate.”
Julian’s mouth almost moves.
Almost.
Marcus gestures toward the main building. “We’re starting in systems integration. Priya’s waiting upstairs.”
We follow him inside.
The campus is quieter than I expected. There are no open-plan rows of engineers under fluorescent lights, no performative startup energy. Everything feels deliberate. Restricted glass corridors. Secure labs. Small teams gathered around prototypes and wall-sized displays.
Julian knows where he is going without waiting for Marcus.
He knows which elevators require additional clearance, which corridor leads toward robotics, which laboratory was expanded last year, and which engineer recently transferred from Boston.
By the time we reach the second floor, three different people have stopped to speak to him.
Not because he is the Executive Chairman. Because he knows their work.
A woman in a white lab jacket meets us near one of the secured doors.
“Priya,” Julian says.
“Julian.”
He gestures toward me.
“Sophie Callahan.”
Priya smiles.
“Priya Shah. Director of Systems Integration.”
We shake hands.
Julian immediately turns toward the prototype visible through the glass behind her.
“You changed the actuator housing?”
Priya looks pleased.
“Last month.”
“You finally stopped fighting me on the weight distribution.”
“I stopped fighting you because you were right once.”
“Once?”
Priya laughs. “Don’t ruin it.”
I watch him as they walk toward the lab.
The difference is immediate. His shoulders are looser.
His voice is lighter. He asks questions because he actually wants the answers, not because someone has put them on a briefing sheet.
When Priya explains the newest system, he steps closer, studying the mechanism with an intensity that feels almost boyish beneath all that control.
Then he points toward one of the housings.
“What happens if the load shifts here?”
Priya answers, and Julian immediately follows with another question.
Something inside me catches.
Theo does that.
Not the words. Not the knowledge. The way his whole face changes when he sees something he wants to understand. I look away before the thought can settle too deeply.
Marcus is explaining the next phase of the campus expansion when I force my attention back to him. By the time we reach the advanced systems floor, Julian is already halfway into another conversation with two engineers about a design problem I only partly understand.
For the first time since I returned to Blackwell, he looks completely at home.
***
By the time we finish the last laboratory tour, rain is striking the glass hard enough to blur the view beyond the campus.
Marcus checks his phone as we step into the main corridor.
“That moved in faster than expected.”
Julian looks toward the windows.
“How bad?”
“County just issued a flood advisory for the eastern access road,” Marcus says.
“There’s also a mudslide warning along the ridge route.”
I glance outside. The hills we drove through earlier are barely visible now.
Priya joins us near the elevator, pulling up a weather map on her tablet. “The private airfield has suspended departures for now.”
Julian’s expression tightens.
“For how long?”
“No estimate yet,” Priya says.
“Commercial traffic out of San Jose is getting delayed too.”
Marcus looks at both of us.
“You’re better off staying here tonight.”
I turn toward him. “Here?”
“We have an executive guest annex on the south side of the campus,” Marcus explains.
“It’s used for visiting teams and overnight research sessions. Two rooms are available.”
Julian glances toward me.
“That works.”
The answer comes too easily.
I look back at Marcus.
“Is the road actually closed?”
“Not yet, but security expects it will be within the hour if the rain keeps up. Once that happens, nobody is leaving until county crews clear it.”
As if to confirm his point, thunder rolls somewhere beyond the glass.
Julian checks his phone.
“What about the aircraft tomorrow morning?”
Marcus shakes his head.
“Depends on the weather. For tonight, it’s grounded.”
Priya slips her tablet beneath her arm.
“I’ll have someone take your luggage over to the annex.”
“Thank you,” I say.
Julian nods toward Marcus.
“Let me know if the road status changes.”
“I will.”
We separate a few minutes later, and I follow one of the site coordinators through a covered walkway toward the guest building.
The annex is quieter than the main campus, with only a handful of occupied rooms and a small lounge overlooking the darkened grounds. Rain hammers the roof as the coordinator shows me my room and points out Julian’s directly across the hall.
I thank her and step inside. The door closes behind me. For a moment, I stand there listening to the storm. Julian is across the hall.
No New York office.
No interview schedule.
No elevator waiting downstairs.
Just the two of us stranded in the same place overnight for the first time since Lake Como.