Ruby's POV
By sunrise, I had two things: the truth,and the beginning of a thread.
Jake was blackmailing someone.
I didn’t know exactly what the leverage was. Not yet. But I knew what I’d seen in the letters, what I’d felt behind the words. The way Caden’s name had been buried under phrases like "the asset is in place" and "conditioning." This wasn’t just alliance or obligation.
It was control.
And it ran deeper than I’d thought.
I moved through the morning as if I was sleepwalking. Shower. Dress. Smile. Lavender tea,because Jake still thought my nerves needed soothing, not sharpening.
But beneath it all, my mind was racing. Not in chaos.
In precision.
There were conversations I needed to remember. Documents I needed to find. Patterns I needed to pull apart until the truth spilled
