That was rather the point.” She stopped, breathing hard, and I saw the last of her plans die in her eyes.

It is a peculiar thing to describe, the moment a schemer understands that the game is genuinely over, not paused, not merely going badly, but finished.

Up to that point Vanessa had still been playing, still calculating angles, still searching the situation for the lever that would turn it back in her favor, because that searching was simply how her mind worked and it did not know how to stop.

And then, watching her reach for a phone that held nothing she could destroy, I saw the searching itself go still.