Elna's silence lingered long after she left Neby's annex. The faint press of his nearness still burned on her skin, though she buried it deep under a practiced calm. She could not let James or Aresy glimpse even a flicker of it.
When she returned to her office, James was waiting—papers in hand, voice tentative but lined with curiosity."Elna… there's something strange. A name popped up in the board's circulation notes. Someone's been quietly added to the consulting team."
Elna froze. She knew the name before James even spoke it.
"Adrian Varrow."
The sound of it was enough to stir the air. James frowned, flipping the document. "His credentials look polished—too polished. No record of the past three years, then suddenly he's dropped into a senior advisory slot? That doesn't happen without strings being pulled."
Aresy's voice resonated from the terminal, calm yet edged with suspicion."I ran preliminary traces. Most of Adrian's trail vanishes after his relocation overseas. Financial silence, project silence, then—abrupt reentry. Patterns like these usually mean one thing: cover-up."
James leaned forward, his gaze sharp. "Do you know him, Elna? You look like you've heard the name before."
Her pulse quickened, but she folded her hands neatly on the desk."Years ago. We worked briefly on a project. He was… ambitious. Too much so." She paused, as if dismissing a trivial nuisance. "But whatever Adrian is doing here now, it isn't worth our time. Don't get tangled in it."
Her firmness landed like a wall. James said nothing, but doubt shadowed his expression. Elna could feel it—the unspoken weight of his concern, the quiet persistence of Aresy's scanning silence. They were circling closer, but around the wrong orbit. For now.
High above them, in his private chamber, Neby thumbed through the same circulation notes. His eyes landed on the name with a flicker of distaste, though his smile curled thin and predatory."Adrian Varrow…" His whisper was low, measured."So, they've brought back an old face to muddy the waters…" His voice was almost amused, but his eyes sharpened with the instinct of a predator. "How quaint."
The papers crumpled slightly under his grip.
Back in her office, Elna turned away from James's searching gaze and Aresy's cold analysis. Adrian's reappearance was more than an echo from her past—it was a shadow in the wrong place, one she dared not let intersect with the real darkness tightening around her.
And yet, as the day moved forward, James's determination only sharpened. Adrian Varrow had become their puzzle.
James was restless. Even after Elna's firm dismissal, his curiosity clung to Adrian's name like a thorn lodged too deep to ignore.
That evening, long after most of the floor had emptied, James lingered at his desk. Aresy's voice hummed quietly from his terminal, deliberately softened so Elna wouldn't overhear."I've cross-checked Adrian Varrow against public databases. The gaps are too deliberate. He existed—then he didn't. The question is why."
James leaned back, rubbing his temples. "People don't just disappear unless someone wants them to. And then to come back right into our boardroom? Someone brought him in."
"Or," Aresy's tone dropped, "he forced his own way in."
James's gaze flicked toward Elna's closed office door. She had been distant all day, her voice carrying the kind of measured calm that only comes when someone is hiding fire under glass. He wanted to ask her again, press for what she wasn't saying—but something in her eyes had warned him off.
Instead, he focused on Adrian. "If Adrian's the missing piece, maybe he's the reason for all the tension around here. Maybe he's the one pulling strings."
Aresy paused. "You're assuming he is the threat. But my scans suggest something stranger. He moves like a decoy."
"Decoy for what?"
Silence hung between them.
Just then, the elevator chimed. A tall figure stepped out, his stride too confident for someone supposedly "new." Adrian Varrow. His presence filled the corridor with an almost theatrical grace, tailored suit brushing past like shadowed silk.
James's breath caught. He hadn't expected the man himself to appear.
Adrian's eyes swept the room, then landed on James with a faint curve of a smile."You must be the assistant. Loyal. Curious. Dangerous combination, huh?" His voice was smooth, touched with irony. "Tell Elna I'll see her soon."
Without waiting for a reply, Adrian walked away, leaving only the faint scent of sharp cologne and the echo of his words.
James sat frozen. "See her… soon?"
From her office, Elna heard every syllable. Her hands clenched under the desk, nails biting into her palms. The walls were closing in faster than she could push them back.
High above, Neby's hand stilled mid-page in his notes. His eyes narrowed, listening to the echoes that weren't meant for him.So. Adrian had already made his move.
And Neby never tolerated competition.