Chapter 623: A Different Meeting

The message from Marcus Vane had created exactly the kind of situation Louis once handled alone. This time, as the issue developed into a different meeting, he did something different. A secure conference facility is selected with independent recording and controlled entry.

Freya noticed the change before anyone commented on it. There were no secret security arrangements, no private calls she learned about afterward, and no carefully edited version of the risk. Louis put the information on the table and allowed everyone affected to see the same problem.

The arrangement gives Marcus no access to Stone property and gives Louis no ability to quietly detain him.

Derek handled security through licensed professionals and legal channels. The attorneys documented every communication. Mercer stayed focused on the predictive technology rather than criminal conclusions, while Evelyn provided historical context only when records could be independently checked.

Freya had no sympathy for Marcus's betrayal, but she also refused to let anger turn the investigation into revenge. If Marcus possessed evidence, it mattered because the conspiracy had affected more people than Louis. Employees had lost jobs. Investors had been manipulated. Private data had been exploited. Families had been treated as variables.

Louis understood that, although the personal wound remained visible whenever Marcus's name appeared.

For years, Louis had believed his collapse resulted from a combination of aggressive competitors, bad timing, and strategic leaks. Learning that someone he trusted had helped design the pressure around his predicted reactions forced him to revisit memories he had already buried.

Freya did not tell him to move on. She knew too well how irritating simple advice could sound when the past suddenly changed shape.

Instead, she stayed beside him without pretending she could repair the betrayal for him.

Their own trust had improved enough that the contrast mattered. Louis had once hidden his backup plan because he believed information itself was dangerous. Now he was learning that secrecy could become dangerous too.

Outside the investigation, Sunroom reached another milestone. The cultural center's atrium reinforcement was completed, allowing interior work to resume at full pace. Freya walked through the unfinished space and could finally see the public hall taking shape around the repaired structure.

Awake Stories also moved forward. The new imprint announced its first list internally, and editors began planning launches. Freya deliberately kept the mysterious Bailey manuscript out of those conversations. Her publishing company would not become promotional machinery for her own impossible history.

At The Open Page, she attended a small author event and sat in the back rather than speaking. The novelist discussed how characters often surprised their creators once a draft became complicated.

Freya nearly smiled at the understatement.

Later that night, she added the newest verified information to her notebook. The pages had become a map of human ambition more than supernatural mystery.

There were still impossible pieces. Her memories remained unexplained. Some old Crosswind outputs still had no confirmed source. But the attack on Louis increasingly looked like something people had engineered using technology they trusted too much.

That distinction mattered.

A model could suggest a weakness. A person still had to decide to exploit it.

A prediction could estimate divorce. Clement still had to choose to approach her outside the supermarket.

A report could describe Louis's contingency habits. Marcus still had to betray him.

Freya underlined the final sentence she wrote.

The hidden manuscript remained sealed despite the temptation to search its unread headings for Victor Hale or Marcus Vane. Freya refused to let predictive fiction become an investigative shortcut.

Every claim from Marcus was tagged as testimony until corroborated. Derek repeatedly reminded the team that a cooperating conspirator could tell the truth selectively while protecting himself.

Prediction does not erase responsibility.

Louis read it after she offered him the notebook.

This time, he did not say anything.

He simply nodded.