The room did not return to normal after that conversation.
It couldn't.
Some things, once spoken, refused to be undone, and Arden Vale's name had settled into the space like a fracture line running beneath everything else. Even the quiet felt different now, no longer neutral, no longer something that simply existed between moments. It had weight. It carried memory.
Vanessa remained standing near the desk long after the others had stopped speaking. Her eyes rested on the coin, but she wasn't really looking at it anymore. She was somewhere else entirely, pulled backward into a version of herself she had not thought about in years.
Back when she didn't know how carefully the world could be arranged around her.
Back when she believed that effort alone was enough to reach the truth.
