Chapter 7
The Swing Vote
Owen met Mira in the estate chapel, the one room Lydia avoided because Mara's memorial plaque hung beside the door.
He did not embrace her. He placed a tablet between them and played six childhood clips without sound.
"Tell me what happens next."
Mira named the spilled paint, the brass bird, the lie Owen told about the greenhouse glass. On the fourth clip, she stopped.
"Celia knows this one. She was behind the camera."
Owen looked toward Elias. "Celia answered every private question I sent after your message."
"Because she was there," Mira said. "A stolen life contains real memories too."
They called Celia from Owen's phone. Mira asked what Mara whispered after the music box broke.
Celia answered at once. "That Lydia only hated things she couldn't repair herself."
Mira had forgotten the sentence. Celia had not.
"Help me," Mira said. "Not because you are innocent. Because Lydia will erase you the moment the vote is done."
Celia's breathing filled the chapel speaker. "Bring me immunity."
"I cannot promise it."
"Then you cannot have the files."
The line went dead.
Owen closed the tablet. "She is better at being you than you are."
"That is what training does."
Elias placed a draft injunction beside Owen's trustee proxy. His hand stopped close to Mira's, leaving the last inch to her. She signed as witness under the name the court still rejected.
Before Owen could add his signature, the chapel doors opened.
Two deputies entered with an incapacity order bearing Owen's physician's seal.