I texted Sophie at noon.
Need to talk. About Elena.
Three dots appeared. Disappeared. Appeared again. Disappeared. Then:
I'll be there in 20 minutes. Don't eat without me.
She arrived in fifteen.
Sophie Chen bursting through a door was a normal occurrence. Sophie Chen entering a room quietly—that was how you knew something was wrong. She walked into the penthouse like she was walking into a funeral, her usual hurricane energy tamped down to a low, careful breeze.
"I brought bagels," she said. "The everything bagels from that place you used to love. You don't remember loving them, but you did. You said they were 'the only acceptable everything in a world full of disappointing everythings.'" She set the bag on the kitchen island. "That was two weeks after Alexander. You were in your Dark Era."
"I had a Dark Era?"
"You exclusively wore black turtlenecks and listened to Leonard Cohen. It was very dramatic. Kevin made a playlist to match your moods. Track one was 'Someone Like You' by Adele. Track seven was just three minutes of rain sounds."
"Kevin made me a playlist?"
"Kevin expresses love through data. It's his love language." Sophie pulled a bagel out of the bag and started tearing it into pieces without eating any. "You want to know about Elena."
It wasn't a question.
"Lucas said the friendship ended around the same time as Alexander. He said you never talked about it. He said when she left, you didn't make jokes."
Sophie's hands stopped tearing. She stared at the shredded bagel on the counter like it might reassemble itself if she concentrated hard enough.
"Elena Rossi," she said quietly. "She was our third. You, me, and her. The Holy Trinity of Unstoppable Women. That's what we called ourselves. We had matching bracelets. We had a group chat that ran twenty-four seven. We had a pact—no matter what happened, no matter who came and went, the three of us would always choose each other."
"What happened?"
"Alexander happened." Sophie's voice was bitter. "But not the way you think. It wasn't just that he was a manipulative, embezzling nightmare. It was that Elena knew. The whole time. And she didn't tell you."
---
She told me the whole story.
Elena Rossi had been our friend since college. The three of us met in a freshman business seminar and bonded over being the only women in a room full of men who explained our own ideas back to us. Elena was brilliant and sharp and had the kind of ambition that could power a small city. She was going to be a venture capitalist. She was going to change the world.
And she was the one who introduced Vivian to Alexander.
"She met him at a conference," Sophie said. "She said he was charming. Successful. Looking for investment opportunities. She thought he would be perfect for you. She set up the first date. She encouraged the relationship. She was the maid of honor at your engagement party."
"Was she involved in the embezzlement?"
Sophie was quiet for a long moment. "That was the part we could never prove. When I found the financial records—the shell companies, the money moving offshore—Elena's name wasn't on any of it. She claimed she didn't know. She said she was horrified. She said Alexander had fooled her too."
"But you didn't believe her."
"I wanted to. God, I wanted to. But there were things that didn't add up. She had access to some of the same accounts. She had recommended the accountant who turned out to be in on the scheme. And when you confronted her—" Sophie's voice cracked. "When you confronted her, she didn't deny it. She just said you wouldn't understand. That business was complicated. That sometimes you had to make choices that looked bad from the outside."
"That sounds like an admission."
"It was an admission wrapped in a justification. She didn't think she was the villain. She thought she was being pragmatic." Sophie finally looked at me, and her eyes were bright with something between anger and grief. "I haven't spoken to her in two years. Neither had you. She reached out a few times—emails, letters, a voicemail on your birthday last year. You never responded."
"But she knows about the amnesia?"
"Everyone knows about the amnesia. It was in the news. 'Billionaire CEO Vivian Chen Hospitalized With Head Trauma, Memory Loss.' Elena sent flowers to the hospital. Lucas had them removed before you woke up."
I thought about Lucas, standing guard outside my hospital room, intercepting flowers from a woman who had betrayed me. Quiet, constant, protective Lucas.
"Did she try to visit?"
"Twice. Hospital security turned her away both times. Lucas put her on a banned visitor list within an hour of you being admitted." Sophie almost smiled. "He's terrifying when he wants to be. He told the security team that if Elena Rossi got within a hundred feet of your room, he would personally ensure the hospital lost its funding."
"Lucas can do that?"
"Lucas can do a lot of things. He just usually chooses spreadsheets instead."
I filed that away. Lucas Grey: assistant, emotional support, and apparently capable of financial warfare when motivated.
"What's her connection to Alexander now?" I asked. "Are they still in contact?"
"Not publicly. Alexander moved to London. Elena stayed in New York. She's running her own VC firm now—smaller than she wanted, less connected than she hoped. The scandal hurt her too, even if she wasn't officially implicated. People talk. People remember." Sophie paused. "But if I had to guess? I'd say they're still connected somehow. Alexander doesn't let go of people who are useful to him. And Elena knows things about your company that no one else knows."
"Things that could help him get back in?"
"Things that could help him finish what he started."
---
We sat in silence for a long moment. The bagels went uneaten. Outside, the city glittered in the afternoon sun, indifferent to the fact that my past was peeling open like an old wound.
"I need to talk to her," I said.
"Vivian—"
"I know. I know she betrayed me. I know she might still be connected to Alexander. But she knows things about the old me—things even you and Lucas don't know. And if I'm going to figure out who pushed me down those stairs, I need every piece of the puzzle."
Sophie's jaw tightened. "You sound like the old Vivian."
"Is that a bad thing?"
"No. It's terrifying. But not bad." She reached across the counter and took my hand. "If you're going to talk to Elena, I'm coming with you. Not as backup. Not as protection. As a witness. If she so much as flinches wrong, I want to see it."
"You think she'll flinch?"
"I think Elena Rossi has been flinching for two years. She just doesn't know anyone's been watching." Sophie squeezed my hand. "Also, I have a PowerPoint about her. It's only twelve slides, but it's very thorough."
"Of course you do."
"It's titled 'Elena Rossi: A Comprehensive Guide to Why We Don't Trust Her.' Kevin helped with the citations."
"How many citations?"
"Forty-seven."
I almost laughed. "You're unbelievable."
"I'm prepared. There's a difference." Sophie's eyes were serious now, the humor fading into something harder. "When Alexander left, you told me something. You said that the worst part wasn't losing him. It was losing Elena. Because you could survive a man betraying you. That was almost expected. But losing your best friend—the person who was supposed to have your back no matter what—that was different. That was a wound that didn't heal."
"I said that?"
"You said it exactly once. Then you never mentioned Elena again. For two years." Sophie's voice was quiet. "I think losing her broke something in you that even Alexander couldn't reach. And I think whatever broke that night you fell down the stairs—it started with her."
---
After Sophie left, I found Lucas in his usual spot near the window, tablet in hand, ears faintly pink.
"How much did you hear?"
"Most of it. Sophie is not quiet."
"Sophie is never quiet."
"True." He paused. "Are you really going to meet with Elena?"
"I have to. She's the missing link between Alexander and my accident. If she knows something—anything—I need to hear it."
"And if she's still working with him?"
"Then I need to know that too."
Lucas's ears went from pink to red. "Vivian. If Elena is involved with Alexander, meeting with her could be dangerous. She could report back to him. She could lead him directly to you."
"She could. Or she could lead us to him."
"Us?"
I turned to face him fully. "You said you wanted to protect me. Proactively. This is proactive. I'm not going to hide in this penthouse forever, waiting for the next threat to find me. If Alexander pushed me down those stairs, I want to know why. And the only way to find out is to talk to the people who knew him. Knew us."
Lucas was silent for a long moment. His ears cycled through shades—pink, red, burgundy, and something softer that I didn't have a name for yet.
"You're different from the old Vivian," he said finally.
"You've mentioned that."
"The old Vivian would have handled this alone. She would have locked herself in her office and built a strategy and never asked for help."
"And the new Vivian?"
His left ear twitched. "The new Vivian builds a team. She trusts people. Even when it's terrifying."
"It is terrifying," I admitted. "I don't remember Sophie. I don't remember Elena. I don't remember any of the people who are supposed to matter to me. But I trust Sophie because she barged into my hospital room and made me laugh. I trust Kevin because he carries trail mix in his pocket. I trust you because—" I stopped.
"Because?"
"Because you waited six years for me to become someone who deserved it."
Lucas's ears went purple. Not the embarrassed purple. The soft one. The one that meant he was feeling something he couldn't name.
"I would have waited longer," he said quietly.
"I know." I held his gaze. "That's why I trust you."