She reached for a small glass of water, took a sip, and let the pause hang just long enough to feel intentional.

Her phone buzzed. She glanced down. A single message, no preview visible.

She set the phone face-down on the cushion, but not before the name at the top of the screen caught the light for just a half-second.

She uncapped the bottle, tapped a drop onto her fingertip, and dabbed it along her cheekbone with the ease of someone who’d done this a thousand times. The content was working.