It didn’t start with anger. It started with a look. Chamber stood too close to Viper, as he often did leaning casually against the wall, that familiar half-smile on his lips. His voice was calm, almost intimate. The same voice that used to say my name. Viper replied in her usual cool tone, but something lingered between their words, something unspoken. Something that hit me even though it shouldn’t have mattered.

I told myself I was imagining things. That it was just missions, strategies, work. Rational. Logical. But every time they walked off together, something stayed behind inside me a quiet ache settling deep in my chest. Jealousy isn’t loud. It whispers.

It whispers that he laughs at her remarks. That he makes time when she calls. That he stays with her while I’m left watching. Viper was everything I wasn’t: controlled, distant, dangerous. And that made it worse. I couldn’t compete with her composure, with the way Chamber looked at her as if she were a puzzle he enjoyed solving.

Maybe it was unfair. Maybe it was just fear. But somewhere between the silence and the thoughts I never spoke aloud, I knew one thing for sure This was only the beginning.