# Chapter 21 Surprise Audit

- `SURPRISES — category: character revelation — THE MOVE: "I need you to tell me it wasn't my fault." — location: scene 1 — why unpredicted: the prior beats prepare Theo's anger and accusation, especially "Did you want her to find it... and she was just in the path?"; the vulnerable request for exoneration swerves from confrontation into need. — why coherent: Theo's voice card says he "over-explains when ashamed" and "goes very plain when he finally stops hiding"; the line is plain need after a list of logistics.`

- `SURPRISES — category: plot turn / character revelation — THE MOVE: "next to his entry on the loan sheet... she wrote her own initials, *O.M.*, small and square" — location: scene 1 close — why unpredicted: Odile has refused a verbal full confession; the expected beat is more withholding or a sharper line. — why coherent: Odile's operation snapshot says she "conducts through logistics" and "moves people and objects rather than explaining"; owning the loan by initials is exactly her material register.`

- `SURPRISES — category: striking image — THE MOVE: "painted side faced to the wall, the labeled bar outward where anyone walking through the stockroom could read exactly what was there and no one could see it" — location: scene 3 close — why unpredicted: the genre-default version would deliver the painting as apology or grand proof. — why coherent: the chapter card requires "faced-to-wall portrait" and "the portrait is offered after the apology in Ch 22, not as the apology."`

`REVISION ORDERS`: none.
