By dawn, Arclight had an explanation.

A facilities malfunction, Celeste said in the emergency executive meeting. Old wiring, accidental lock, false trigger. Very unfortunate. Very fixable. Very private.

Maya placed the cracked jury badge on the table.

Celeste's expression did not change. "Where did you get that?"

"From whoever tried to kill us," Maya said.

Several executives shifted. Theo watched Celeste, not the room.

Celeste folded her hands. "Maya, I value your caution, but trauma can make coincidence look like conspiracy. The launch remains Friday. Legal will submit final notes by noon."

"No," Maya said.

The word stunned even her.

Celeste's eyes sharpened. "Excuse me?"

"I will not clear a series when a witness may be in danger and our own archive contains suppressed material connected to a dead producer. We pause production, secure evidence, and notify law enforcement."

Celeste smiled with maternal disappointment. "This is why I hesitated to promote you. You confuse hesitation with ethics."

The insult landed exactly where it was meant to. Maya felt every year she had swallowed her anger in order to appear reasonable, every meeting where men were bold and she was difficult, every compromise labeled maturity.

Theo stood. "For what it's worth, I agree with Maya."

"How romantic," Celeste said.

Maya looked at him sharply. Theo did not flinch.

Celeste dismissed the room, but as Maya stepped into the corridor, her phone buzzed with an unknown number.

A woman's voice whispered, "If you want the whole verdict, stop looking at the singer. Look at Juror Eight."

"Elian?" Maya asked.

The line crackled.

"Nora trusted the wrong person. I won't. Come alone tonight. Ladies' lounge, old Rialto Theater. Nine o'clock. No cameras. No producer."

The call ended.

Maya told Theo immediately, because she was cautious, not foolish. He argued about her going. She argued back. Eventually they agreed on a compromise: Maya would enter alone, and Theo would wait across the street with a live location link and the world's least discreet concern.

The Rialto had once hosted red-carpet premieres. Now its lobby was a ruin of velvet ropes and dust. The ladies' lounge smelled of damp plaster and faded perfume. Maya found Elian Park sitting beneath a cracked mirror, still wearing the red coat.

"You should not have brought him," Elian said.

Maya froze. "He is outside."

"Outside is still brought."

Elian slid a small black drive across the counter. "This is Nora's copy. Not the one Arclight buried. The real one. It proves Juror Eight was paid through a children's charity, then blackmailed into silence. It also proves the payment came from a crisis firm later acquired by Arclight. Your CEO built her empire by controlling scandals, not reporting them."

Maya's throat went dry. "Why come back now?"

"Because someone is making a new series to blame the dead singer for everything again. The truth is uglier. He was not innocent of all things. He was not guilty of the story sold to the jury. Powerful people used him as a wall to hide behind."

A floorboard creaked outside.

Elian stood. "You were followed."

Maya's phone vibrated. Theo: RUN. TWO MEN ENTERED SIDE DOOR.

The lounge door burst open.

Maya grabbed the drive and ducked as a man lunged. Elian swung her handbag into his face with surprising force. Maya kicked the second man's knee, a move learned from a self-defense class she had taken after a client once waited outside her apartment. They bolted through a service corridor.

At the alley exit, Theo's car screeched to the curb.

"Get in!" he shouted.

Elian shoved Maya forward. "You go. I know another way."

"No," Maya said. "You are done disappearing."

For a moment, Elian looked like she might refuse. Then glass shattered behind them, and she climbed into the car.

As Theo sped away, Maya looked back and saw one of the attackers standing beneath the Rialto sign, speaking into a phone.

Minutes later, every billboard in the city began streaming the same breaking headline from an anonymous leak:

ARCLIGHT LEGAL ANALYST STEALS EVIDENCE, COERCES WITNESS.

Maya's face appeared beneath it.