I trusted him—more than I trusted anyone under my command, more than I should’ve allowed myself to. In the long nights between missions, when exhaustion softened our guard, he became the one person I could speak to without weighing every word. There was something unspoken between us, something dangerous and painfully real. I never named it, but I felt it every time he looked at me like he understood me completely.

Then I was framed.

Stripped of everything I’d earned, hunted by my own men, I held onto one truth to stay sane: He would never betray me. If the whole world turned against me, he wouldn’t. He couldn’t.

But now I stand here, staring at the undeniable evidence clutched in my hands—his signature, his codes, his betrayal. And he’s standing in front of me, silent, unable to meet my eyes.

My voice cracks before I can steady it. “After everything… it was you?”

The ground doesn’t give way beneath me, but it feels like it should. Because losing my rank, my honor—that I could survive. But Losing him? I never prepared for that.