20. Erik #2
I've negotiated territory with men who arrived armed. I've negotiated contracts while knowing one person at the table planned to betray another before the signatures dried. None of those conversations required this much effort to start.
"I spent most of my life planning until the next threat." I rest my forearms on my legs. "I knew which property mattered if another became exposed. I knew which routes could close without damaging the rest. I knew who took command if I was killed."
Rowan's amusement disappears. She shifts until both feet are on the floor.
"I never planned farther than that. There was no reason to."
"What changed?"
I look at her. "You did."
She doesn't look away.
I signed the transfers today. Peter thinks I'm dismantling my own authority.
Rowan studies me. "Are you?"
"Parts of it."
She leaves the casebook beside her and leans forward. "Why now?"
The strategic reasons are all true, but they aren't why I signed today.
I don't know how much of my life can become ordinary. The Danilov name doesn't disappear because I decide I'm tired of what comes with it.
"I know."
I can decide which parts continue. Liya can run the foundation and Makari can run security without my name above theirs.
Rowan looks toward the documents on my desk. "Peter must've enjoyed this meeting."
I half smile. "He survived it."
She shakes her head. "That wasn't what I asked."
"No."
The corner of her mouth lifts before she looks back at me.
I've spent enough of my life giving people partial answers and letting them decide whether they have the courage to demand the rest. Rowan almost always does.
This time, I give it without making her ask. "I've never trusted another person enough to plan past the next threat." The words sound different in the office than they did inside my head. "I'd like to try."
Rowan becomes very quiet, but I don't fill the space for her. She stands and takes one step toward me.
For a second, I think she's going to kiss me. Then she looks down, presses her lips together, and looks up again with an expression I can't place.
"What?" I ask.
She opens her mouth, but the office door opens before she speaks.
Makari comes in without knocking, which he does only when whatever he has is more important than my irritation. His posture tells me this qualifies.
I turn toward him. "What happened?"
He crosses to the desk and puts his tablet beside the restructuring files. "We have confirmation that Orell's network had a copy of Jeremy Bennett's decrypted folder within hours of the original opening."
Rowan turns away from me and reaches the desk first. "How much of it?"
Makari enlarges the timestamp record. "Enough to match the file structure and several internal documents. The earliest confirmed copy existed the same day you broke the encryption."
I move beside Rowan and read the timestamp. "How close to the opening?"
"We don't have the exact access path yet." Makari expands another window containing the mirrored file structure. "We can narrow the window to hours."
Rowan reads the date twice.
I know that day without checking a calendar.
She opened Jeremy's folder in my library while state police were still processing Aaron's body.
Peter, Liya, Makari, and I were in the house.
Evelyn knew about the phone shortly afterward.
Richard knew evidence from Jeremy had surfaced.
Foundation and university systems touched the investigation within the same day.
The number of people who knew the exact moment is much smaller.
Makari points to the metadata. "The person didn't get a later copy from a summary. The structure matches the original decrypted folder. Whoever provided it had access after the encryption broke."
I look at him. "Could the isolated machine have transmitted?"
"No." He already expected the question. "We checked the hardware, connection history, cable interface, and every export. The machine never touched a network."
Rowan shifts beside me.
Makari closes the hardware log. "The leak came through a person or through material that person later controlled."
My attention returns to the names on the earlier access trees. Richard. Evelyn. Liya. Peter.
Every branch still has an explanation and a reason to stay open.
"Who knew the folder was readable that day?"
Makari gives me the list. "Everyone in the library.
Evelyn learned the device had usable content after Rowan documented the chain.
Richard knew Jeremy records had surfaced but shouldn't have known what they contained.
Two foundation attorneys received preservation notice.
Nobody else should've known the encryption was broken. "
Rowan reaches for my hand. The movement is sudden enough that I look down. Her fingers close around mine harder than they did in the kitchen.
Makari keeps talking, but part of my attention stays with her. "We'll work the copies backward. Somebody created the first one, moved it, or described enough of the structure for Orell's people to reproduce it. I'll have the comparison by morning."
"Keep it to us." I close my free hand around the edge of the desk. "Nobody gets told we know."
Makari nods. "Agreed."
He takes his tablet and leaves us with the mirrored structure still displayed on the screen.
Rowan doesn't release me.
I turn toward her. "You were about to tell me something."
She looks at the office door instead of at me. "Makari found something more important."
"That isn't an answer."
"I know."
I wait.
She usually fights when she wants distance. She argues until I understand exactly which boundary I approached and how far she expects me to move.
Tonight, she only keeps holding my hand.
That is different enough to matter.
I think about how she came home pale and changed her role on the team, how little she ate, how carefully she avoided my questions, and how she reached for me both times I came close to whatever she doesn't want to explain.
There are dozens of possibilities, and I actively decide not to choose one for her.
"Does whatever you're keeping change whether you're safe tonight?"
Rowan finally looks at me. "No."
"Does it require action before morning?"
"No."
"Does it involve Orell?"
Her hesitation is brief, but I see it. "No."
I stop.
Rowan's fingers loosen slightly around mine. She expected another question.
I could ask until I find the one she doesn't want to answer. I know how to do that better than most people.
Instead, I turn off the screen and leave the office with her hand still in mine.
Whatever Rowan is holding, she's decided not to give it to me yet. For now, I let the decision remain hers.