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She looked at me like I'd said something unexpected. "You think so?"

"Yeah. Fighting for what matters is never wrong."

We sat there in silence. Not awkward, just present. The PlayStation hummed softly in the background.

"What about you?" Katherine asked. "At the science fair, you didn't have to help the twins with their robot. But you spent hours teaching them."

“How do you know about that?”

“Bonnie told me.”

"I helped because they asked."

"Lots of kids ask for things. Most adults say no."

I thought about Amber's frustrated face, Lachlan's disappointment. The way they'd looked at that robot like it held all their hopes for the future.

"They reminded me of myself at that age," I admitted. "Curious about how things worked. Wanting to understand systems, figure out patterns."

"Did you have someone to teach you?"

"My mom, mostly. She was an English teacher before she became a diplomat's wife. She believed in understanding things, not just accepting them." The old pain surfaced, sharp and familiar. "But she was gone a lot. Embassy functions, international trips. My dad's work took priority over everything else."

The word hung there between us.

Lonely.

"I know something about that," Katherine said quietly.

"Yeah?"

"Hollywood's the loneliest place on earth." Her voice dropped. "You're surrounded by people constantly. Publicists, agents, assistants, photographers. But nobody actually sees you. They see the brand, the commodity, what you can do for their career.”

She shredded the water bottle label into tiny pieces.

"After my divorce, I thought things would get better. That maybe I'd find something real. But it just got worse. Every date was calculated. Every friendship had an angle. I stopped trusting that anyone cared about Katherine. They only wanted Kit Lord. That’s why I treasure what I have with Angelica."

I understood that completely. "Is that why you came here?"

"Partly." She met my eyes. "But mostly because someone's trying to take away the one of the few things I care about. This role, this film—it matters. It's not just another movie. It's a story that deserves to be told right."

"And they're using your face to destroy it."

"Yeah."

I leaned back against the couch, the worn cushions accepting my weight. "You know what's messed up? I spent twenty years hunting people through digital footprints. Nation-state actors, terrorist cells, criminal networks. I was good at it. Really good."

The words wanted to stay buried, but something about Katherine made me want to talk. To explain.

"A couple years ago, we were helping Ukraine defend against Russian cyber-attacks. Intelligence sharing, threat assessment, teaching their people how to protect critical infrastructure. It was important work. Lives depended on it."

My hands clenched into fists.

"Then the orders changed. Policy shift. We were pulled back, told to cease all operations. All that relationship building, all those people depending on us, just cut off."

"That must have been awful," Katherine said softly.

"It was like abandoning them in the middle of a firefight." My voice roughened. "I knew what was coming. The attacks, the infrastructure damage, the civilian casualties. Hospitals without power, water treatment plants compromised. And I couldn't do anything about it."