Kelly's instinct screamed at her to move, to create distance, to sever the visible connection between them before Sandra's brain caught up with what her eyes were seeing. She stood abruptly, the chair scraping against the wooden floor with a sound that seemed to echo through the entire shop.

"I need to go," Kelly said, her voice pitched for James alone but loud enough to be heard. She didn't look at him, didn't acknowledge the way his hand had frozen mid-reach toward his coffee cup.

Sandra was already moving toward the counter, her purse slung over her shoulder, her expression still neutral but her eyes tracking Kelly's movement with the particular interest of someone who'd just witnessed something worth remembering.

Kelly gathered her phone and case files, forcing herself to move with deliberate calm rather than the panic that clawed at her chest. Her hands felt unsteady. She could feel James's gaze on her, the weight of his concern and fear pressing against her back.

"See you around," Kelly called out to no one in particular, a performance for Marcus and the college students and most importantly for Sandra, who was now ordering her drink with studied casualness.

Kelly moved toward the door, her coat still unbuttoned, her scarf trailing behind her like something she'd abandoned mid-escape. The November cold hit her immediately, a shock that cleared her head just enough to function. She didn't run—running would have been too obvious—but her pace was brisk, purposeful, the walk of someone who'd simply finished their coffee and had somewhere to be.

Behind her, through the window, she could see Sandra glancing back toward the table where James still sat, his posture now rigidly formal, his attention suddenly and intensely focused on his coffee as though it contained the secrets of the universe.

Kelly turned the corner onto Fifth Avenue, finally allowing herself a shaky breath. Her phone buzzed almost immediately—a text from an unknown number, one of the burner phones James had insisted they use. She didn't read it. Not yet. Not while her hands were still trembling and the rational part of her brain was screaming that they'd just made a terrible mistake by letting Sandra Chen see them together at all.