The procurement freeze I lifted? Tidball.
The date with Grau?
Tidball.
I scroll.
Faster. Frantic.
There’s a pattern.
One I didn’t see.
Because he didn’t want me to.
Because he built it like a web and stood just far enough outside it to look like a friend.
I sit back down. Not on the floor this time. The desk chair welcomes me like I still belong here.
I don’t.
But I fake it anyway.
“Okay,” I whisper to the room. “If Tidball played me… then who didn’t?”
And that thought—that single thought—is what finally unravels me.
Because the answer is simple.
Grau.
I don’t hesitate.
I open the comm line.
I ping his ID. It shows active. For half a second.
Then it vanishes.
Unavailable.
Encrypted.
I try again.
Then a third time.
“Come on,” I whisper. “Come on, Grau. Just—just pick up. Say something. Curse at me. Growl. Anything.”
Nothing.
Only static.
The line won’t even let me leave a message. Like he scrubbed it. Like he’sgone.
And suddenly the silence feels heavier than the betrayal.
He was a monster. Dangerous. Unpredictable. Sharp in ways I didn’t understand and didn’t always want to.