Chapter 17. Collateral Exposure

By morning, the sunlight slid in like a blade through the high windows of the Council chamber, casting fractured light across polished stone. Harper stepped into it—not early, not late. Right on time. And that, she’d learned, made all the difference.

She didn’t wait to be acknowledged. She walked forward with quiet precision, a deliberate calm. Inside, the board members already occupied their semicircle.

Knox sat center, arms folded, a study in restraint. Lilah leaned forward slightly, unreadable but alert. Bryce scribbled, but the motion felt more like theater than necessity. And Jude—the one who’d become a problem—reclined too comfortably, as if comfort were a strategy.

Harper didn’t sit. She raised her hand.

The clerk faltered for a moment, unsure, but glanced at Lilah. One nod later, the floor was hers.

“I move to open a code-of-conduct review into Councilor Jude Matheson,” she said, voice clean and steady. “On grounds of inappropriate influence dur