Page 137 of Scaled Daddy's Secret Heir

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Inside, I move silent.

Boots whisper over concrete. My breath stays shallow.

At the end of the corridor, I hear it—a voice I haven’t heard since the transport.

Thale.

The handler.

He’s talking to someone over secure comms, voice low, clipped.

“Confirm relocation in seventy-two. The child goes to Facility Seven. The woman is non-priority after extraction. The father… monitor, for now. He’s unhinged, but potentially useful again.”

My blood goes still.

Unhinged.

Useful.

Like I’m a broken blade they might resharpen.

I step into the doorway.

“Try it.”

Thale spins, one hand going for the console. I shoot it before he touches it. Sparks burst.

He freezes.

Then smiles.

“Kalev,” he says lightly. “You look well.”

I walk toward him slow. Measured. Each step deliberate.

“I want my son,” I say.

“And Leah?” he asks, head tilting. “You think we don’t know what she means to you?”

“Idon’tcare what you know,” I say, my voice low. “I care where they are.”

He doesn’t answer.

So I shoot him.

Once.

Through the thigh.

He screams.

Drops.

I crouch beside him, the barrel of my pistol pressed against his throat.

“You don’t get to be a person anymore, Thale,” I whisper. “You get to be a data source.”

He tries to smile again.

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