Naomi’s Pov

The pressure stopped pretending to be institutional the morning my name disappeared from a distribution list.

It wasn’t dramatic. No alert. No message explaining the change. Just silence where there had been routine. I noticed because I always did my own cross-checks now. Habit. Survival. When the briefing packet didn’t come through, I knew immediately it wasn’t an error.

I didn’t say anything at first.

I waited. Watched. Let the shape of it reveal itself.

Cassian noticed before I told him. He always did. He came into the room holding his phone, jaw tight in that way that meant he’d already traced the thread back to its source....