Chapter Two: The Woman Everyone Forgot

At 8:57 the next morning, Qiao Sui set an iced Americano beside Wen Qi. “Two pumps of hazelnut, no milk. Did you sleep well?” Wen looked up from her script with the courtesy of someone beginning a business meeting. “And you are?” No one in the makeup room laughed. Qiao's smile stopped, then carefully widened. “Don't joke. We shoot promotional material at nine-thirty. Yesterday you promised to record a birthday message for my daughter.” Wen turned to Tang Li. “A new makeup artist?” Tang's tablet struck the table. Jianwei stood in the doorway, nails cutting into her palms. She had not slept. She had brought the camera and printed copies of the photographs, telling herself all the way there that she had witnessed corrupted files and the