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“A shelter always has a problem you can fix. Security cameras fail. Locks need replacing. Staff members worry about an ex turning up at the building. Most places run on budgets that barely cover the people they’re trying to protect, so proper security becomes whatever they can afford.”

I remember the first building clearly, though I haven’t thought about it in years. Two broken cameras, an alarm panel old enough to belong in a museum, and a director who apologized every time she asked for another favor.

“One place called another after I helped them, and then that shelter called somebody else. Before long I was moving through the same organizations over and over.”

Emma turns toward me as I slow for traffic ahead. “You were moving through the same network we’ve been following.”

“Part of it, which explains how Patricia remembered me even when I couldn’t place her. The strange part is that I never realized how much of Celeste’s work overlapped with mine. I knew the shelters were connected because that was how referrals worked, but I didn’t know she’d followed specific women after they left. I didn’t know she was helping with apartments, legal costs, school fees, or whatever else they needed once they were out.”

Emma looks down at her lap. “She kept their stories private.”

“Yeah.”

That distinction matters more now than it did when we first started finding the names.

“At the time, I thought I knew what her volunteering looked like. Now every notebook proves I only saw the part she could talk about without exposing somebody else’s life.”

Emma reaches across the console and rests her hand over mine where it sits near the gear selector.

“What about Wolf Shield?” she asks. “How does fixing locks at shelters turn into a company worth billions?”

“One of them needed a monitoring system they couldn’t afford, and most of what was available had been designed for businesses with money rather than shelters trying to stretch every dollar.”

I remember the first conversations with the engineer I’d worked with before, when neither of us had any idea what we were starting.

“We built a simpler system and tested it there. Another organization heard about it, then a private company connected to one of the charity boards asked us to adapt it for them.”

Emma shifts toward me as the connection reaches her. “Your first commercial contract came through the shelter network.”

“Yeah, but I didn’t understand what that meant at the time. One project led to another, recommendations started reaching people outside the charities, and eventually someone on one of the boards introduced me to an investor.”

Emma looks out through the windshield again. “So the company didn’t come out of nowhere.”

“It felt like it did at the time.”

“You went from bodyguard to billionaire very quickly.”

“I didn’t become a billionaire overnight.”

She gives me a look.

“Relatively quickly,” I amend.

Her mouth curves. “That’s more accurate.”

“The business grew faster than I expected once the first investor came in. We hired engineers, expanded the software, and moved into corporate security. Theo joined before I could ruin everything by trying to handle it alone.”

Emma laughs. “That sounds like Theo.”

“He still claims the company would’ve collapsed without him.”

“Would it?”

“I refuse to give him the satisfaction of answering that.”

Her smile stays with her for a few beats before fading. “Do you think Celeste knew this could happen?”

I shake my head. “She couldn’t have. I didn’t know.”