Page 41 of Damian
“Don’t make me lose you, too. Daddy and Momma were hard, but at least I had you.”
My chest squeezed, hot tears burning behind my eyes. I pulled her into my arms, holding her tight. “You won’t. I promise. I’ll always be here for you.
She didn’t argue, but I felt the way her fingers clung to my sweatshirt like she didn’t believe me.
And as I stood there in the dark with my little sister, the blinking red light of the recorder catching in the corner of my vision, I wondered if I believed myself either.
52
Morgan
Ruby wouldn’t go back to bed. She sat cross-legged on the couch, hoodie sleeves pulled over her hands, watching me like I was some stranger she wasn’t sure she could trust.
“You should tell him,” she said finally. Her voice was soft, but it carried like a bell in the quiet cottage.
I sank into the chair opposite her, rubbing my forehead. “Ruby—”
“No, listen.” She pushed her hair behind her ears, eyes fierce in a way that reminded me of Mom when she was set on something. “You always said secrets eat you alive. You’re keeping one from Damian, and it’s going to blow up.”
The truth stung. I wanted to argue, to remind her she was sixteen, that she didn’t understand the kind of war Damian was in. But she wasn’t wrong. She knew better than anyone what evil was out there.
Her voice cracked when she added, “What if he finds out the wrong way? What if he doesn’t forgive you?”
That thought had haunted me for days, and hearing it from her lips made it land heavier. Damian’s eyes had beensteady when he told me to wait for him, steady when he’d promised me he’d be back. What would those eyes look like if he thought I’d betrayed his trust?
I leaned forward, clasping Ruby’s hands in mine. “I need you to understand something. I’m not doing this to hurt him or to hurt us. I’m doing this because Ican’t not.These girls—” My throat tightened. “They don’t have a voice. But I do. And if it means risking him being angry with me, then I’ll take that risk.”
Ruby’s chin trembled, but she held my gaze. “Then you’d better make sure it’s worth it. Because I like him, Morgan. He makes you… lighter. Happier. If you lose that because of this—” She shook her head. “I don’t want to lose you, and I don’t want to lose him either.”
Her words cut deeper than I expected. Because it wasn’t just my heart on the line anymore—it was hers too.
I pulled her into my arms, holding her as tight as I could. “I’ll make it worth it,” I whispered into her hair. “I swear.”
But when she finally drifted off against my shoulder, I stared at the recorder blinking steady on the table and wondered if even I believed that promise.
53
Morgan
Ruby was asleep again, curled on the couch beneath my grandmother’s old quilt. She looked younger like that—sixteen going on ten, not the sharp-eyed girl who’d just told me the one truth I’d been too afraid to say out loud.
Tell him.
The words chased me back to my desk. The laptop glowed faintly in the dark, the files still open, the breadcrumb already waiting in the code like a secret burning to be uncovered. All it would take was one keystroke to send it into Cyclone’s net.
But Ruby’s voice wouldn’t leave me.What if he finds out the wrong way? What if he doesn’t forgive you?
I pressed my palms against my eyes until stars burst behind them. Damian’s face flashed there anyway—the hard set of his jaw, the way his voice dropped when he promised,I’ll be back.
If I sent this, he’d know I hadn’t stayed out. That I hadn’t kept the promise he wanted me to keep. But if I didn’t sendit… the girls trapped in this pipeline might never be found. Damian and the team might walk into the dark blind.
My hand drifted to the recorder. I thumbed the button, the red light flickering alive.
“Note: The pipeline isn’t broken. It’s one long chain—docks, industrial parks, storage farms. If they find the farmland hub, it’s not the end. It’s the middle. If Damian’s listening to this one day… I hope he knows I wasn’t trying to betray him. I was trying to keep my promise in the only way I know how.”
My throat burned as I stopped the recording. My hand hovered over the keyboard, trembling. Then I whispered into the silence:
“Please don’t hate me.”
