For two days, Ethan did not exist. He stayed in a storage room above an auto shop owned by Grace's brother-in-law, slept in short bursts, and watched the city decide he was dead. By the second night, the headlines had settled on one version: a mentally unstable

Three weeks sounded like time. It wasn't. The first days disappeared into recovery. Ethan's hands closed properly again, the bruises faded, and he finally slept longer than two hours at a time. Then Grace covered a wall with paper: dates, transfer record

Six days before the gala, Vivian finally tried to stop Lucas. Ethan learned about it from another clinic recording Grace had preserved through the same evidence channel she was already using.

"She called him to the Hart clinic," Grace said. "Closed office. No assis