Vivan pov
I went back to my room and pulled out my secret burner phone—the one the facility didn't know about and started making calls. If Sophia talked, I needed an alibi. I needed proof I was too unstable, too medicated, too out of it to have planned anything.
And I needed to warn Marcus. Because if this setup failed, it meant Aria was smarter than we thought, way more dangerous.
Which meant we needed to change tactics entirely. My brother-in-law answered on the third ring. "Vivian, to what do I owe the displeasure?"
"The hotel setup failed," I said bluntly. "Aria saw through it. Sophia's probably getting arrested as we speak."
Silence. Then: "Interesting."
"Interesting? That's all you have to say?"
"It means Aria's not the broken little girl anymore," Marcus said thoughtfully. "It means she's learned to think like us, to anticipate threats."
"So what do we do?"
