Lux had gone unusually quiet after Viv's warning. Not completely silent—no, that wasn't her style—but the constant meddling had eased. Now, it was just the occasional jab, usually delivered with a sly grin from across the common area.

"Still not gonna tell me about that... unusual stepsister of yours?" Lux would say, voice dripping with mockery. "The one who visits you like you're the crown jewel of this place?"

Viv didn't rise to it. She never did. A flat look, a slow blink, and Lux would be forced to find entertainment elsewhere. For now.

Meanwhile, Viv had shifted her focus. Every night, when the prison's hum dulled into a low, sleeping rhythm, she waited for the right gap in the patrol. Slipping out of her cell was like muscle memory; finding the weak spots in a system was second nature. Sometimes she worked her way into offices with dusty filing cabinets, flipping through paper records under the dim beam of a contraband flashlight. Other nights, she'd ghost her way into the administrative wing, slide into a desk chair, and wake up a computer that thought it was safe.

Piece by piece, she rewrote timelines, adjusted entries, planted the kind of inconsistencies that—when noticed—would all point toward early release for Pen. It was slow, meticulous work.

One night, in the middle of combing through the disciplinary logs, she stumbled across a folder she hadn't been looking for. It was Lux's file.

She skimmed, mostly out of habit. The entries didn't tell her much she didn't already know—until she hit the newest update. Lux's projected release date had been cut drastically short. Bribery wasn't spelled out in neat words, but the language was telling: "Reassessment of case and behavioral record—recommendation for early release approved."

Viv leaned back in the chair, staring at the screen for a few seconds longer than necessary. It wasn't surprising—Lux's family had deep enough pockets to drown a problem in gold.

She closed the file without hesitation. It wasn't her concern.

Pen's file was still open in another tab, and that was the only one that mattered.