The war room smelled like old paper and stale coffee. I stood at the long table, running my finger down the exhibit log for the third time, checking each entry against the physical files stacked in neat rows across the surface. The Westfield hearing was twelve hours away. Everything had to be perfect.

Exhibit A-1 through A-47: discovery documents, properly tabbed. Exhibit B series: email chains, highlighted and cross-referenced. Exhibit C-1: the signed merger agreement, dated March 15, 2019, bearing both parties' original signatures in blue ink. The contract that proved our client's position beyond any reasonable doubt. The contract that made this hearing a formality instead of a fight.

I pulled it from the file and held it up to the light, checking for the watermark one last time. Perfect. I slipped it back into its protective sleeve, returned it to the C series folder, and placed the folder in the center of the table where it would be immediately visible tomorrow morning.

The clock on the wall read 11:47 p.m. I'd been here since seven. My eyes burned. My shoulders ached. But the war room was ready. Every document accounted for, every argument supported, every contingency planned.

I turned off the lights and locked the door behind me. The hallway security camera's red light blinked steadily above the doorframe, the way it always did. I didn't think anything of it then.

I should have.

The courthouse was cold the way courthouses are always cold, like they keep the temperature low to remind everyone that justice doesn't care about comfort. I arrived at six a.m., two hours before the hearing, carrying my litigation bag and a cardboard tray with three coffees—one for me, two for the associates who'd meet me there.

The war room door was unlocked.

I stopped in the doorway. I'd locked it. I remembered locking it, remembered testing the handle twice because that's what I always did. But now the door stood slightly ajar, the overhead lights already on.

I set down the coffees and stepped inside.

The files looked the same. The exhibit log sat where I'd left it, my handwriting neat across the top page. The folders were stacked in the same order. But something felt wrong. The air felt wrong. Like someone had been here, moving carefully, trying not to disturb anything but disturbing everything anyway.

I went straight to the C series folder.

Exhibit C-1 was gone.

I checked the folder twice. Then I checked the folders on either side. Then I pulled every single file off the table and went through them one by one, my hands moving faster, my breath coming shorter. I checked the boxes underneath the table. I checked the filing cabinet against the wall. I checked the recycling bin, the printer tray, the shelf by the door where someone might have set it down meaning to return it.

Forty minutes. I searched for forty minutes while the clock ticked toward our court time and my phone buzzed with texts from the associates asking where I was.

The contract was gone.

I stood in the center of the war room, surrounded by files I'd torn apart and reassembled, and felt something cold settle in my chest. Not panic. I didn't have time for panic. Just a clear, terrible understanding that someone had taken it. Someone had come into this room after I left and removed the single most important piece of evidence in our case.

I pulled out my phone and called Simon. Straight to voicemail. I tried again. Voicemail. I sent a text: *C-1 missing. Need to discuss before court.*

No response.

I gathered what remained, repacked my litigation bag, and headed to the courthouse. I had an hour to rebuild an argument that had just lost its foundation.

The hearing went exactly as badly as I knew it would. I stood before Judge Hartley and argued procedural history, argued reliance, argued every piece of circumstantial evidence we had. I was good. I was better than good. But I was arguing without the signed contract, and opposing counsel knew it. He smiled when he stood to respond, the kind of smile that said he'd already won before he'd spoken a word.

"Your Honor, the plaintiff has failed to produce the original signed agreement. We've seen only copies, which my client disputes. Without the original, there's simply no evidence that the terms plaintiff alleges were ever actually agreed upon."

Judge Hartley looked at me over her reading glasses. "Ms. Collins, do you have the original contract?"

"Your Honor, we had it as of last night. There's been an issue with our case files that we're currently—"

"Do you have it now?"

The courtroom was very quiet.

"No, Your Honor."

She didn't hesitate. "Motion granted. We're adjourned."

I walked out of the courthouse into morning sunlight that felt too bright, too normal. My phone was already ringing. The client. Then Simon's assistant. Then Raymond Black's direct line.

I didn't answer any of them. I stood on the courthouse steps and pulled out my own phone, opened my private folder, and typed a new entry: *Exhibit C-1 missing as of 6 AM. War room door unlocked despite personal confirmation of lock at 11:47 PM previous night. Only person with after-hours access and motive: A.V.*

Then I called the building's security office.

"Hi, this is Jade Collins from Henderson & Wright. I need to request footage from the fourteenth-floor war room camera. Last night, between midnight and six a.m. Yes, I'll hold."

I wasn't guessing anymore. I was building a case. And this time, I was going to win it.