It was like the whole world came to a stop. Freddy recognized the man. Despite all the stuff the century of solitude made him forget, there were some faces that were seared into his mind forever.Matt Canstone stood there, keeping his gaze met with Freddy’s. Panic nearly overwhelmed him. She found me, he thought, the inside of his mind a warzone of worst-case scenarios.His relationship with Madame was one of those things he tried to avoid thinking about.Did she sell him out? Did she bring him to that party knowing he’d be kidnapped? If not, why didn’t she save him? Did she even try to? But worst was the cynical voice in the back of his mind that always expected cruelty from anyone with power over him—technically, by being kidnapped, he had violated their contract. To him, it wasn’t even a question of whether it was realistic for her to argue this or not. He was still afraid that she would. She had the power to.“… Mr. Cliff?” the adjudicator’s concerned voice broke him out of his thoughts.“Oh, sorry,” he rushed. “Geez, talk about embarrassing,” a woman’s sing-song voice echoed through the room. “I get that you’re impressed, but at least try not to gawk like a peasant.”Freddy looked over to the woman who said that, only to once again find himself frozen. The people who had arrived… were flashy, to say the least. Flashy actually didn’t cut it. They looked like they were straight out of a movie, (...)