She looked away toward the mirror lights, her own reflection dim in the glass.
“I still admire Dominic,” she said, almost to herself.
“I know.”
“That’s the obscene part.”
“No,” I breathed. “The obscene part is that Henri used that against you.”
She looked back at me. I leaned forward, forearms on my knees.
“You deserved a conversation,” I said. “A real one. Years ago. You deserved the chance to tell Dominic exactly what it cost you, and you deserved not to have that injury converted into a plot.”
She stared at me.
“A plot,” I repeated. “To end someone’s life.”
A crack appeared in her expression. No tears or visible collapse. A weakening of her vigilance.
“I didn’t think...” she said, and stopped.
“No, you didn’t think.”
“That’s not fair,” she insisted. “I didn’t think he could want blood.”
“I think he told himself he wanted a witness,” I said. “Men like Henri prefer language that lets them believe they’re still elegant.”
“Elegant. Yes. He likes that.”
I took a card from my folder, wrote my number on the back, and set it on the table beside the letter copy.
“If he contacts you again,” I said, “you call me immediately. Not after you’ve considered whether it’s important. Immediately.”
She looked at the number. “Why you?”
“Because I’m asking.”
A ghost of a smile crossed her face.
I stood. She remained seated. At the door, I paused and looked back.
“I am not protecting Dominic from the truth of what he did,” I said. “But I am protecting him from a man who decided the right expression of a grievance was assassination.”
A shudder spread through Bridget’s body as she nodded.
When I opened the door, rehearsal noise rolled back in around us. I stepped into the corridor and closed it quietly behind me.
I found Thiago near the stage-right crossover speaking with one of the house security supervisors. He looked at me, reading something in my face.
“Everything alright?” he asked.
“Not remotely.”
He waved the supervisor off and walked with me as far as the edge of the house, where the shadows thickened under the balcony.
“You spoke with her.”
“Yes.”
