A Fire at Dock Nine

Mara refused to let the new evidence become another order issued by a powerful man. She made the next call herself and brought only the people whose motives she could test. Adrian stayed close enough to intervene and far enough away to make the distance visible.

Julian supplied the medical detail. Naomi supplied the legal edge. Celia supplied the record no one else could authenticate. Together, they turned the private debt into a public question while Victor kept changing the cost of asking it.

The Black Ledger is still warm when Adrian finds it beneath the floor.