_Nathan’s POV_
Miles being back should have made the week’s damage feel finished.
It didn’t.
He was in the city again, close enough to reach, furious enough to burn through half of Rowan’s careful structure if I let him. That was the problem. If I let him. Rowan had timed the ambush for the last day of Miles’s absence for a reason, and the threat he left behind still sat under my skin like a second pulse: selective truth, divided loyalty, presentable consequences. Miles wanted a direct war. Elias wanted composure. Rowan wanted me to understand that resistance had a price.
I found that out the next afternoon.
The message looked ordinary enough to pass a first glance.
**Ashwood Private Office:**
Brief verification required regarding continuity notes from the past week. Report to the
