Page 141 of Scaled Daddy's Secret Heir

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I store it in a part of me that doesn’t feel. That doesn’t tremble when I hear Clancy’s voice down the hall. That doesn’t rage when they don’t let me see him.

Because if I break now, they win.

And I don’t break.

Not for them.

Not for anyone but Kalev.

On the fourth rotation, the handler comes back.

He doesn’t sit this time.

Just stands in the doorway, arms folded.

“You’re quieter than I expected,” he says.

“I’m colder than you expected,” I reply.

That gets me a real reaction. Not much. Just a twitch at the corner of his mouth.

He steps inside.

“You know, I used to believe Kalev was our greatest weapon. But now I wonder.”

I look up. Slowly.

“Wonder what?”

“If it wasn’t you all along.”

He steps closer.

I don’t flinch.

He circles the table, slow.

“Kalev used to be brutal. Efficient. Predictable in his loyalty. But the minute we took you, the minute your name came up in the debrief, he started slipping.”

I say nothing.

Because it’s the only thing that keeps me from spitting in his face.

“You’re leverage,” he says, low and calm. “But you’re also a fracture point. A woman like you could make a man like him forget what he was made for.”

He leans down.

Face level.

Close enough I can smell the synthetic soap on his collar, the mint from the lozenge he keeps tucked under his tongue.

“And that,” he says softly, “is a weakness we can’t allow to exist much longer.”

He straightens. Walks out.

I don’t watch him go.

I count the seconds after the door clicks shut.

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