Page 109 of Dagger

“I told you I was sorry once,” she said, her voice low. “But it wasn’t enough. Not for me.”

He didn’t speak. Didn’t move. Just watched her with that stillness that always said more than words ever could.

“I made you carry a weight that wasn’t yours, and you did it anyway. Youalwaysdid. You knew I was sorry… but I needed to say it right. I needed to look you in the eye and tell you I love you. I blamed you because it was easier than facing myself. But I see you now. All of you.” Her voice cracked. “I’m sorry, Kade. Deep down, where it matters.”

She wasn’t just apologizing. She was unraveling. Offering him her heart without armor, without pretense. It was easy, and it was right. It felt so damn good to have them all in her life.

He stepped into her space, slow and steady, and lifted a hand to cup her cheek.

His thumb brushed her skin like he was anchoring her there.

“You were never alone, Quinn.” Her breath hitched. Tears spilled.

“I was so lucky to have you all,” she whispered, her voice trembling. Then she leaned her forehead to his, breath tangled with his and let the silence between them say everything else.

She turned, at last, and walked to the front of the room. The chip was waiting. So was her future. When the applause came, she barely heard it. Behind her, a familiar voice called out.

“Hey, Dagger! Try not to drown, bro! She’s on fire today!”

Laughter rippled through the room.

Dagger groaned. “I’m killing him.”

But he didn’t let go of her hand.

The new USEmbassy stood like a sentinel of light in the heart of Caracas, sleek, modern, and unapologetically bold. What had once been a chaotic construction site marked by scaffolding, sweat, and uncertainty had been transformed into a masterpiece of form and function.

Glass and steel curved in clean, intentional lines, reflecting both the city skyline and the sky above, transparent yet unyielding. Local stone grounded the structure, a nod to the country that had shaped so much of her pain and, somehow, her healing.

Every element had purpose. The security perimeter flowed seamlessly into the design, invisible to the untrained eye. Sustainable features, green walls, water reclamation systems, solar glass, anchored it in innovation. Sunlight flooded the atrium, casting golden light over textured walls that told a story of resilience, unity, and quiet strength.

To anyone else, it was an embassy.

To Quinn it wasproofof who she was, a woman who knew exactly where she was going personally, professionally. A testament etched in steel and stone.

Somewhere beneath the foundation, when the cement was still wet, she’d knelt and pressed a dedication into the earth. ToBrian. To Kade. To her children. To the team who had never faltered.

It was immortalized now, buried in concrete, hidden from sight but never forgotten. Part of the bones of the place. Part of the woman she’d become. That even the most broken things could be rebuilt.

She stood in the majesty of her own vision, a structure born from fragments of grief, resilience, and untamed creativity. Bit by bit, she had shaped this monument to their country, to herself. To rising.

A woman who had been knocked down more times than she could count, burned by heartbreak, failure, betrayal. Still, she gathered her smoldering remains and rebuilt. Again, and again.

She was the flame incarnate.

Fierce. Unyielding. A phoenix reborn not by fate, but bywill.

Her power wasn’t just in surviving the burn. It was in transforming it. Every scar, every misstep, every grief-forged night… she had made it fuel. Now, her fire stood in steel and glass and concrete, unmovable and unashamed.

Then—Dagger.

Equally resolute. Born of water, not flame. Where her fire surged with instinct and emotion,he flowed with control, strategy, and quiet strength.He was the current that bent but never broke. The stillness beneath the surface, the tide that could move mountains when it chose.

Fire and water.

She burned bright. He met her blaze with depth and calm.

Sometimes, they clashed, her sparks hissing against his tide. But other times, they became something more. Steam rising. Power multiplying. Fire sharpened by water, water warmed by fire.

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