Daniel looked at her.
“Victor's partner.”
“Why?”
“He attacked you.”
Mara stared at the blue door.
“And then?”
“Victor disappeared.”
“And I lost my memory.”
“Yes.”
“And you married me.”
“Yes.”
Mara stood.
She looked at Daniel.
“You didn't marry me because you wanted to protect me.”
He didn't answer.
“You married me because you wanted to stay close to the only person who knew what happened.”
Daniel's eyes filled with tears.
“That was part of it.”
Mara nodded.
“And the rest?”
“I loved you.”
She looked at him for a long time.
Then she said quietly, “I don't know if I believe that anymore.”
Daniel looked devastated.
But he didn't argue.
That mattered.
Mara walked toward the blue door.
She reached for the handle.
Daniel grabbed her wrist.
She turned sharply.
“Let go.”
“There is someone inside.”
“Who?”
“I don't know.”
“Then let go.”
He did.
Mara opened the door.
The warehouse was dark.
A single light flickered at the far end.
The air smelled like dust.
And something else.
Mara stopped.
Dog.
Wet fur.
Leather.
Metal.
A smell she recognized without knowing why.
She stepped inside.
The door closed behind her.
Daniel shouted her name.
Mara turned.
The door was locked.
She tried the handle.
Nothing.
Then a light came on.
A chair sat in the center of the room.
On it was a black credential wallet.
Mara approached slowly.
She opened it.
Inside was another photograph.
This one was recent.
Mara.
Daniel.
Atlas.
Together.
Taken from outside their home.
Her face hardened.
Someone had been watching them.
For years.
Then a speaker crackled.
A voice filled the warehouse.
“You always were curious.”
Mara looked around.
“Victor?”
“No.”
“Who?”
The voice laughed softly.
“You still don't remember.”
Mara stared at the ceiling.
“Show yourself.”
A door opened at the far end.
A man stepped into the light.
Mara recognized him.
Thomas Vance.
But the Vance standing before her was not the man who had followed her into the warehouse.
This Vance wore a dark jacket.
No badge.
No identification.
No federal insignia.
He smiled.
“You finally came back.”
Mara stared.
“Who are you?”
He smiled again.
“The man who erased you.”
Mara's face became cold.
Behind her, the blue door remained locked.
The speaker crackled once more.
Then Vance said the words that changed everything.
“You weren't an asset in Baltimore, Mara.”
He took another step forward.
“You were the one who recruited us.”