Chapter 264

GIDEON

The news broke on a Tuesday morning.

Not as a whisper.

Not as speculation.

But as a headline.

VALERIA DREXEL ARRESTED ON CHARGES OF KIDNAPPING, CONSPIRACY, AND UNLAWFUL SURVEILLANCE.

By noon, every major outlet had picked it up. By evening, analysts were dissecting it like it was a corporate scandal instead of the unraveling of something far uglier.

I stood in my office, the television mute