Page 232 of Fractured Devotion

---

We let the quiet stretch, neither of us willing to disturb it.

Somehow, in this tangled, bruised space, it doesn’t feel like an ending.

It feels like the start of something neither of us can name yet.

But we both feel it.

And neither of us is ready to let it go.

Chapter 64 – Kade - Ghost Letters

Another city. Another face in the crowd.

I sit outside a cafe, tucked into a corner where the light barely touches. The air here is warmer, thick with spices and diesel and the murmur of people who don’t know my name.

Good.

That anonymity is the closest thing I have to peace.

I sip bitter coffee, watching the street and tracking the subtle movements in a way that never leaves me. I spot the exchange happening across the square. Two men. One envelope. I know what’s inside without needing to see it.

Corruption blooms everywhere.

And I root it out, discreetly and unseen.

It isn’t about justice anymore.

It isn’t even about revenge.

It’s just what I do.

I flick my lighter open, the flame catching before I light the cigarette perched between my lips.

Some habits stay.

Some ghosts linger.

I lean back in the chair, my eyes half-lidded as I let the smoke curl around me.

She’s still in my head.

Celeste.

Always.

But it doesn’t ache the way it used to.

I take the phone out of my pocket, the screen dark but familiar.

There are no messages.

There never are.

But I still check.

I tap into the old network, one I’ve kept hidden even from myself, and watch the muted surveillance feed of a town far from here.

There she is.

---