Page 59 of Ivory Requiem

After twenty minutes—exactly on the dot, because nothing in the Bureau happened by accident—a man in a blue suit and oxblood shoes glided in and shook my hand. His name was Agent Feldman, and he wore his smile like a badge he’d never had to polish.

“Mr. Moretti?” he said, eyes flicking once, twice, across my face, then away.

“That’s right,” I replied, using the voice I’d used at seventeen to convince my math teacher I was innocent of setting off the fire alarm.

He led me to a conference room. The walls were glass, but they’d papered them over with butcher block. Coffee was already poured, and a single legal pad waited at the head of the table. I let him have the big chair and took the side, just close enough to the door to make both of us nervous.

He started with the usual: “What brings you in today?” Like I was visiting my doctor for a routine checkup and not a possible plea deal with the US government.

I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Agent Feldman,” I said. “I’m here to turn myself in.”

Agent Feldman didn’t flinch. Just tapped his pen once against the legal pad.“I’m sorry,” he said, polite as hell. “Can you repeat that?”

I leaned forward, voice steady now.“I’m here to turn myself in.”

The words hung there, heavy in the stale air between us.

Feldman nodded once, like he’d just confirmed the weather. He didn’t smile. Didn’t blink. Just reached into his file and pulled out a photo—upside down from my side of the table—and slid it toward me.

“You’re not the first Moretti we’ve seen this week.”

My blood went cold.

I didn’t touch the picture. I didn’t look away.

Outside the papered-over glass, I caught a flicker of movement—a silhouette on the other side of the two-way mirror. Tall, still. Watching.

I closed my eyes for a second and saw her—Jade asleep in the car, Marco’s stupid caption. The soft curve of her stomach. The way she whispered we now, like it was a promise.

Maybe I was a fool. Maybe this was the end.

But if I burned, I’d do it keeping her warm.

Some things are worth bleeding for.

She was all of them.