Alex clicked it anyway. Fatigue had dissolved his caution hours ago, somewhere between the third batch of wedding formals and the espresso shot he’d licked off his own wrist.
“That’s not Grandma,” she said, voice thin. “That’s the day she found out about your grandfather’s affair. She never smiled like that in front of us.”
The installer ran anyway. He didn’t remember clicking "Yes."
The preview window shimmered. Not processed— shimmered . Like heat haze over asphalt.
He closed the laptop. The knocking stopped.