Silas had been given one embrace and already guarded the memory like treasure.

"That sentence connects Grant directly to the fabricated notes," Miriam said.

Evelyn drew a red line beneath it herself.

The pen did not shake.

Evelyn pulled the next sheet from the stack.

Her breath stopped.

Silas smelled fear before he saw the sentence.

Patient continues to express an erotomanic fixation upon violent motorcycle-club leader Silas Blackwood, whom she believes is capable of changing physical form.

The note was dated April ninth.

Four months before the mountain road.

Ronan read it twice.

"Well," he said. "At least the violent part is fair."

No one laughed.

Evelyn pushed the page toward Miriam. "I didn't know Silas existed on April ninth."

"Nolan did," Silas said.

The meaning settled across the table.

Nolan had not merely invented treatment to support Grant's story. After seeing Silas at the gas station, he had inserted Silas and the wolves into a backdated record. He wanted any future claim Evelyn made about them classified as an old delusion.

He had built the lie after meeting them and buried it months earlier on paper.

Miriam photographed the page without touching its edges. "This is the mistake."

"One sentence destroys all seventeen notes?" Evelyn asked.

"One sentence tells us where to dig. The produced PDF has visible dates. The electronic health system has creation timestamps, edit history, user accounts, and access logs. If this paragraph was entered after the gas station, the audit trail can prove it."

"Can you get that trail?"

"With a subpoena, discovery order, licensing-board preservation demand, or a frightened employee." Miriam capped her pen. "The first three take time."

Ronan smiled. "I enjoy option four."

"You will not frighten clinic staff."

"I can be charming."

"That was not one of the options."

Evelyn studied the letterhead. "The receptionist."

Everyone looked at her.

"At the gas station, Nolan said his office had tried to reach me. But no one from that clinic ever called. If the receptionist handled scheduling, she knows I was never a patient."

Miriam nodded once. "Her name is Celeste Harper. She resigned yesterday morning."

"Before or after Nolan followed us?" Silas asked.

"After the gas station video started circulating."

That could mean conscience. It could mean fear. It could mean Nolan had removed someone who knew too much.

Miriam slid her phone across the table. A photograph showed a woman in blue scrubs leaving the clinic carrying a cardboard box. Mid-fifties, close-cut gray hair, shoulders drawn tight beneath the rain.

"She hasn't returned home," Miriam said. "Her sister reported her missing from work, but not to police. Celeste sent one text last night."

The message contained four words.

HE CHANGED THE FILES.

Below it was a location pin beside an abandoned roadside motel twelve miles outside the county.

Silas stood.

So did Evelyn.

"No," he said.

Her chin lifted. "You don't get to decide that alone."

The correction landed exactly where it should.

Yesterday, he might have argued from protection. Today, he remembered the garage and the choices she had asked him to respect.

"The pin may be a trap," he said instead.

"I know."

"Celeste may already be compromised."

"I know."

"Grant will expect me. He may not expect you to take part in the plan."

Evelyn's anger sharpened into focus. "Then let's stop behaving the way he expects."

Silas's wolf approved with enough force to brighten his vision.

Miriam gathered the records. "Briar can approach in an unmarked vehicle. Evelyn stays nearby, out of sight, until Celeste confirms she asked for her. Silas stays farther back because no frightened witness becomes calmer when an Alpha fills the doorway."

"I can be calming," Silas said.

Ronan glanced at the broken table. "The furniture feels otherwise."

For the first time since opening the file, Evelyn laughed.

Silas looked at her and felt the bond move—not command, not ownership. Recognition.

She had asked him to hold her that morning.

Now she was asking him to trust her beside danger.

The second request was harder.

It mattered just as much.

"We do it Miriam's way," he said. "Evelyn helps choose every step."

Evelyn met his eyes. "And if Celeste has proof?"

Silas looked at the seventeen fabricated sessions spread across the table.

"Then Nolan loses the weapon he built out of your name."

Miriam’s phone vibrated.

A new emergency custody petition had appeared in the county system.

The applicant was Grant Quinn.

The removal was scheduled for that afternoon.