The London fog clung to the city like something alive—thick, gray, suffocating. It swallowed the Shard whole, devoured the skyline, blurred everything into nothing.
Everything except Sterling Global.
The glass-and-steel tower cut through the haze like it didn't belong to the same world. Untouched. Unbothered.
Unreachable.
Standing at its base, I didn't feel small.
I felt… irrelevant.
Not Queens-small.
Disposable-small.
Julian stood beside me, his hand resting lightly at the small of my back. The touch was meant to ground me—but my body tensed anyway.
After Reid…
After the way his grip had felt—
Every touch now felt like ownership.
Like a leash I hadn't agreed to wear.
"You sure about this, May-May?" Julian murmured. "Once we go in there, the Architect is going to know. His biometrics are everywhere."
I tightened my grip on the black bag.
"I have the drive," I said quietly. "And the note."
My voice didn't shake.
But something inside me did.
