Chapter 10 - THE ELEVATOR DOORS OPEN AGAINOne year to the day after their fateful encounter, Sarah Voss found herself standing inside the private executive elevator of the Thorne Foundation Institute.

She pressed the button for the penthouse level.
The elevator hummed smoothly, rising without a single jerk, the digital floor numbers glowing a calm, reassuring blue.
Halfway up, the car gave a sudden, microscopic shudder—not a mechanical failure, just a slight shift in the counterweights.
Sarah instinctively reached out and gripped the polished steel handrail, her heart skipping a single, familiar beat.
The elevator doors slid open with a soft chime.
Standing on the other side, holding a fresh cup of hot coffee and a packet of peanut butter crackers, was Callum Thorne.
He looked at her hand on the rail, then down at the crackers, and finally into her eyes with that familiar, intense focus that had once terrified her.
"Stuck again, Nurse Voss?" Callum asked, a slow, knowing smile spreading across his face.
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Sarah let go of the rail, stepped out of the elevator, and took the coffee from his hand with a confident, radiant grin.
"Not a chance," she said.