In the middle of the night, the card slipped under her door.
Selene's hands shook as she opened the black satin envelope. The two words inside say, "Don't trust."
She looked at them, which were burning on the matte paper. Don't trust. The message kept playing in her head, bouncing off broken glass, half-smiles, and secrets she hadn't yet faced.
As dawn broke through the windows, she lay awake with the card in her hand. Every sound in her penthouse sounded like a footstep, and every shadow looked like someone watching her.
Eliora's Warning By the middle of the morning, she was on edge. She walked around her private lab, the smell of chemicals and raw materials making her nose hurt. She called Eliora no response. She tried again. Still nothing.
She kept sending messages asking if you were okay. Where are you? No response.
She couldn't wait until noon. She left two voicemails, one calm and one panicked, both with her name on them. Her assistant knocked on the door at 2 p.m., even though she looked tired and pale.
Eliora. But she wasn't the Eliora Selene knew. She walked in, her face pale, eyes empty, coat unbuttoned, and dirty. Her hair was messy, and some of the strands were stuck together with something dark.
Selene's heart was locked up in her chest. "Eliora?" She trembled as she swallowed.
"I got your messages. I can't... I couldn't answer. "Why not?" Selene stepped forward and asked.
Every logical part of her screamed danger.
Eliora stepped back, her eyes darting around.
"It's not safe, Selene." You need to stop looking. They're on their way. Selene's voice broke.
"Who? Who's coming? Eliora shook her head. She felt tears coming, but she pushed through.
"Someone who's been hiding behind smell. Someone who understands how you think. And they've been collecting your secrets, both the ones you forgot and the ones you buried.
Selene's chest felt cold. "Tell me." Right now. Eliora's lips shook. She looked around the lab, as if someone were watching from the vents.
"When I first joined you, I helped you make last-lane formulas better. I was just there to help you. Her voice shook.
"But when Lucien died... after that, you asked me to help you with things. To hide formulas, to make data logs look better, and to keep files from being seen. I did because I saw that you were in pain.
"Because you begged me." Selene couldn't breathe. She felt the room move.
"You did that?" Her voice was empty. Eliora nodded, her eyes full of fear. "I kept the logs from that midnight when you say you never went to meet him.
The message from behind the scenes is that I put them away. I helped hide the proof. But someone got into the system and undid what I did. Showed what I was trying to hide.
And now they're using those files against you. Nothing, Selene's head was spinning: the burning studio, the uploads, and the remote access, they had all been quietly changed over the course of months.
There was always a shadow behind her that made her think she was alone. Eliora swallowed hard, her voice shaky.
"I told you once. Don't trust me, or anyone else too easily. You forget how much you are worth when you put your fate in someone else's hands.
Selene's eyes hurt from the tears, but she blinked them away. "Why now?"
Eliora's jaw got tighter. "Because they're coming for both of us."
They want to take everything from you: your sanity, your reputation, and your formulas. She was about to leave, but she stopped.
"I'm going to stay hidden for now." But you wanted to know the truth. That's all I can do." Then she left, even though she was in pain. Selene saw the door close, and the lab seemed emptier and more dangerous.
Looking into the Lie, Selene looked at her desk, which had her notes, the card, the vial Dorian gave her, and the open monitors on it.
She ran her fingers along the edge of her black notebook, then grabbed her coat, phone, and the vial and ran out. She parked next to the Marrins & Vale Foundation tower. It was tense for security: guards had sharper eyes and ID checks took longer.
Everyone seemed to be on edge. She slipped past the reception desk and into the shadows of his private wings. She took the lift to his floor with the access card
Dorian gave her, which was "for emergencies only." Her heart was racing. She slipped into the hallway where his lab and archives were, used her thumbprint to unlock the door, and walked into the data hub.
The screens lit up. Entries, logs, and file trees. She typed quickly: "Backdoor access," "Midnight backstage message," and "Suppressed logs."
Red says "Access Denied." She took out the USB drive she always carried with her backups. Put it in while it was loading, her eyes moved to one folder:
VARIANT‑07 private. She stopped moving, it throbbed She opened it up. A stream of automatic downloads, pictures, formulas she never used, and drafts she never showed anyone, her private smell of grief.
The most evil things she suggested, and her fears that she hides. She kept scrolling.
There is a folder called "D.V imprints." Underneath it are breath patterns, biometric scent codes, and training notes that refer to "Obsess Me," a code name she used for an early draft formula. Her blood froze.
Someone....Dorian? Lucien? Her unknown enemy had been building her, profiling her, and writing her like a formula.
She wasn't an artist, she was information, a sample.
Then a message came in: "Access logged trace started." She stopped moving. Her thumb was hovering over the USB eject button. She tore it out. The screens went black.
There were loud footsteps in the hallway. Someone is coming quickly. She went into a wardrobe on the side. Her heart was beating so loudly that she thought it might betray her.
The door opened with a creak, and a shadow went by tall and thin. The woman in white.
Selene pushed herself flat against the wall. The door to the wardrobe broke too wide the woman stopped. A breath, then she put on a smooth mask. Black and simple. People turned their heads, but Selene didn't move.
The woman in white grabbed the wardrobe door with her fingers and pulled. Selene stumbled out while holding the USB. The dim light made the woman's face look clear.
She quickly closed the gap. Selene held the USB like a gun.
"Stay away." The woman smiled, but it was a cruel cold smile.
"Selene Voss, you are so easy to read."
And the woman in white knows her better than she knows herself.