diff --git a/src/storage/adapters/fileSystemStorage.ts b/src/storage/adapters/fileSystemStorage.ts
index 95d3951d..f676d091 100644
--- a/src/storage/adapters/fileSystemStorage.ts
+++ b/src/storage/adapters/fileSystemStorage.ts
@@ -17,7 +17,6 @@ import {
   WriterLockInfo
 } from '../baseStorage.js'
 import { getBrainyVersion } from '../../utils/index.js'
-import { isAbsentError } from '../../utils/errorClassification.js'
 
 // Node.js modules - dynamically imported to avoid issues in browser environments
 let fs: any
@@ -1229,14 +1228,25 @@ export class FileSystemStorage extends BaseStorage {
     await this.ensureInitialized()
     try {
       return await fs.promises.readFile(this.blobPath(key))
-    } catch (err) {
-      // Absent blob → null (the documented contract). A real fault
-      // (EIO/EACCES/EMFILE/…) must NOT be masked as "absent": doing so makes a
-      // present-but-unreadable blob look missing and drives a needless rebuild
-      // or an empty read (the native provider consumes this). Mandate: loud
-      // errors, never quiet losses.
-      if (isAbsentError(err)) return null
-      throw err
+    } catch {
+      // COORDINATION HOLD — restore the fault-propagating form lockstep with
+      // cortex 3.0.13 (CORTEX-BILLION-SCALE-SPINE). The correct behavior
+      // distinguishes genuine absence from a real fault so a present-but-
+      // unreadable blob no longer masquerades as "absent" (which drove needless
+      // rebuilds / empty reads). Restore to:
+      //     } catch (err) {
+      //       // re-add: import { isAbsentError } from '../../utils/errorClassification.js'
+      //       if (isAbsentError(err)) return null
+      //       throw err
+      //     }
+      // The throw is HELD because the native column-store still has 2 call sites
+      // that rely on null-on-error; cortex hardens them in 3.0.13, then this
+      // reverts to the throwing form and ships lockstep. Until then this
+      // preserves the shipped 8.2.5 swallow-on-fault behavior, so a consumer on
+      // new-brainy + old-cortex can never break. All other Pass-1 hardening
+      // (saveBinaryBlob honesty, clear(), pending-flush durability, count
+      // symmetry, degraded surfacing, aggregation) ships now, independent of this.
+      return null
     }
   }