Hearing that gentler maelstrom makes her blood run cold and her nails dig into her desk, because she knows what it means - he heard her, he -

He's not calling her out on any of it. Just giving her another choice.

Madelyne closes her eyes, releases the breath building up before it explodes in her chest, and nods. "All right."

When she opens her eyes, they're locked onto her file. There's nothing in it she wants to hear, she's sure, but it's all something she knows. Something solid instead of treading uncharted waters. "So. Once upon a time..."

It starts where she thinks it will: in Nathaniel Essex's laboratory.