The photos were spread across our dining table.
There were hundreds of them, revealing intimate, private monts no one should have seen.
Katherine wouldn’t even look at them or even enter the room.
She had been sleeping on the couch for three nights now and had been unable to close her eyes in the bedroom.
"They watched us," she said yesterday, her voice sounding hollow. "They were there. While we-"
She couldn’t finish her sentence.
I stared at one photo in particular: Katherine and asleep, tangled together and vulnerable.
Soone had stood in our bedroom, photographed us, and we never knew who it was, which was quite strange, as we were not really deep sleepers who wouldn’t have noticed soone was in, especially since Katherine’s recent experience with her trauma.
This violation was worse than any physical attack. It was personal, intimate, and designed to destroy our sense of safety.
"We find them," I told Timothy on the phone. "And we end this."
"With what leads? We have nothing."
He’s right, we have no na, no face... absolutely nothing.
Just photos and a signature from The Shadow.
The FBI had been analyzing everything.
"Looks like professional-grade equipnt used," the tech specialist says. "Military surveillance technology, this is not civilian accessible. Our research shows that they were taken over in two weeks using dozens of entry points in your apartnt, at the therapy office, restaurants, and probably everywhere you went."
Timothy was looking at security logs. "No forced entry. No alarms triggered. This person either has keys and codes, or-"
"Or what?"
"Or soone on the inside is helping them."
The words hung in the air like poison.
It had to be soone we trust, soone with access.
"Luca’s team needs to be questioned," Timothy says carefully. "Interrogated. Everyone of them."
"You think one of Luca’s people is compromised?"
"I think we can’t rule it out."
Luca arrived an hour later, furious.
"You’re questioning my team’s loyalty?"
"We’re questioning everyone’s loyalty," I said. "Soone had access to our apartnt, our security codes, and our schedules. That’s insider information."
"My people are solid. I trust them with my life."
"But can you trust them with ours?"
Luca’s face darkens. "You’re serious."
"Seventeen of Katherine’s clients are dead. Diane got inside information sohow. Now, The Shadow has detailed surveillance. Yes, I’m serious."
"Fine. Interrogate my team, polygraph them. Whatever you need." Luca’s voice was thin as ice. "But when they all co back clean, you owe an apology."
After he left, Katherine appeared in the doorway.
"We can’t suspect everyone. That’s what The Shadow wants - paranoia and division so we can turn against each other."
"Then what do we do?"
"We change everything and get a new security team, new systems, and live new lives."
"Running again."
"No, it’s adapting. There’s a difference."
Two days later, we’re moving to Luca’s family compound upstate.
It’s a fortress, isolated and strongly defensible.
I was taking a temporary leave from Marvin Industries while Bella ran everything remotely.
"How long?" she asked on a video call.
"However long it takes."
Katherine also paused her firm rebuilding. "I can’t help clients when we’re targets."
Elliot was also moving in with us. "It’s safer together. Statistically."
Susan insisted on joining. "You’re not doing this alone."
The whole family was in lockdown, under siege again.
But this ti, it was self-imposed.
Three weeks in, we were all going crazy with cabin fever, paranoia, and the walls closing in.
Katherine and I were constantly fighting about almost everything.
"This is your fault!" she shouted during one argunt. "Your past! Your father’s legacy! I never had enemies before you!"
"You chose this life! You chose !" I dragged my hand through my hair, already sounding frustrated. "Call a son of a bitch Katherine, but you knew about and what I represented before you ca in, you did your own research about my family legacy and what we stood for. I guess it was good while it lasted for you."
"And look where that got ! Photographed in my own bedroom, violated in every possible way!" She scread. "Those pictures could be released on a porn website for all I know!"
We were saying things we don’t an, lashing out in hurt.
That night, we slept separately... again.
Barely speaking since she won’t even allow touch her or even move next to .
The breaking point ca on day twenty-one.
Katherine was on the balcony when I found her, staring at nothing. I find her there at 2 AM.
"I can’t do this anymore," she says, not looking at . "I can’t live like this."
"So what? You leave and run again?"
"Maybe! Maybe running is smarter than staying and getting killed!"
"You don’t an that."
"Don’t I?" She finally turned to face with tears streaming down her face. "Tony, we’ve been fighting for two years straight. Two years of constant danger. When does it end? When do we get to just live?"
"When we stop The Shadow."
"And if we can’t, or so other threat cos after the shadow? If this is our life now, forever? Running, hiding, fighting until one of us dies?"
I didn’t have an answer to that because I knew deep down she was right.
We’ve been surviving so long, we’ve forgotten how to live.
Bella pulled aside the next morning.
"You’re pushing her away."
"I’m trying to protect her-"
"By treating her like she’s fragile or she can’t handle this. You know she’s not fragile, Tony, so stop acting like she is."
Later, Bella finds Katherine.
I don’t hear that conversation, but Katherine tells later.
"She said I’m pushing you away because I’m scared. That I’m punishing you for circumstances neither of us can control."
"Are you?"
"Maybe... probably." Katherine sits beside . "I don’t want to fight with you, but I’m so scared and angry and... and I don’t know where to put it."
"You put it on , I can take it."
"That’s not fair to you."
"Neither is this situation, but we deal with it together. Right?"
"Right."
We held each other and apologized.
"I’m sorry," I tell her. "For everything. For the danger and for my past catching up to us. For-"
"Stop, this isn’t your fault. The Shadow is doing this, not you, and I’m sorry for blaming you."
"You’re scared, I understand that."
"So are you."
"I’m terrified."
We’re finally reconnecting after weeks of distance.
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