Ethan’s eyes darted to me. Panic barely contained. Morgan’s smirk softened into an appraising glance. She knew the game had changed.

The rest of the office—the clerks, the other patrons—continued their business, oblivious to the silent war playing out. But in that small triangle of space, the balance of power had shifted irrevocably.

I felt it in my bones: control, once his, was now shared. Observation, documentation, preparation—all of it had built a lattice no single call, no single promise, no single deception could break.

Ethan’s voice, finally, fell into a low, cautious cadence. “We… we’ll need to figure this out.”