I grabbed the remote off the console table with hands that didn't feel like mine anymore. Noah was already moving toward the wall panel, pulling up the smart display before I even got the television on. Two feeds, two automatic reflexes, both of us bracing for something we couldn't name yet.
The screen flickered to a mid-morning entertainment segment, glossy and bright, the kind of show that treated other people's lives like weather reports. A woman with a microphone stood outside a restaurant I didn't recognize, and my stomach folded in on itself before I even understood why.
Because standing next to her, hand raised like he was mid-sentence and enjoying every second of it, was Ryan.
"—and honestly, I just want people to know the truth," he was saying, his voice smooth in a way that us
