"And if this is about the baby, once you've recovered, I'll give you another one."

The moment he mentioned the baby, a nameless fury roared to life inside me. I grabbed everything within reach on the bedside table and hurled it at him. "Get out! The entire Fletcher bloodline deserves to die out!"

Paul dodged as he backed toward the door. "Jessica, as long as I'm alive, you will never make it into the Fugitive Unit."

"Unless you apologize to Ellie and drop the charges. Otherwise, you'll deal with the consequences yourself."

I stared after him. "Paul, what is that supposed to mean? Get back here and explain yourself!"

His only answer was the door slamming shut hard enough to rattle the frame.

Once trust collapses, every word that came before it starts to rot.

I picked up my phone and texted Jasmine, asking her to look into it for me.

That evening, Jasmine walked in carrying takeout from my favorite spot.

But I had no appetite. All I wanted was the truth.

"Jasmine, what did you find?"

She set the food down, her expression heavy. "Jess, I asked my uncle to dig into it."

"His findings show that every single one of your transfer applications over the past seven years was blocked by a distant cousin of Paul's."

A cold laugh escaped me. The irony was almost poetic. "Eight years I've known the man, and I never once heard about this relative."

Because I'd trusted Paul, I had told him about every single application over the years. Without fail, each one came back rejected.

I thought it was because I wasn't good enough. That I didn't have what it took to follow in my parents' footsteps. On countless sleepless nights, I'd drowned in self-blame, hating myself for being so useless.

It had all been rigged from the start.

The eighth time, I was so afraid of another rejection that I didn't tell Paul.

Sitting here now, I was endlessly grateful I hadn't.

But he knew how badly I wanted to avenge my parents. What possible reason could he have for blocking me at every turn?

"The background check I asked you to run on Eleanor. What came back?"

Jasmine's hand froze on the lid of the takeout container. She looked up at me, dead serious.

"We believe Eleanor is the daughter of the man who led the operation that year."