When Daniel and Sophia arrived, their faces still bright with accomplishment, they found her standing at her window, her posture rigid with contained emotion. The morning sun caught the tension in her shoulders, the slight tremor in her hands as she turned to face them. In that moment, before words shattered the silence, the weight of unspoken intentions hung heavy in the air between them. The clock on her wall ticked mercilessly toward the DOJ meeting, each second a countdown they’d started without her.

“Would either of you care to explain,” Juniper’s voice cut through the morning quiet, “why I’m reading about my own case’s deposition in an email to the DOJ?”