“You think I would’ve put her in danger?”
“You didn’texist,Vael!” I shout. “You were gone. Vanished. I thought you were dead, and then when you weren’t, you were… someone else. Some ghost in a uniform who didn’t remember me.”
“I rememberedyou.” His voice cracks. “Every damned second they pieced me back together, I remembered your laugh. Your voice. The way you looked at me like I wasn’t just a weapon.”
I press my hand to my mouth.
“I came back for you, Rynn.”
“No, you didn’t.”
That silences him.
I don’t even know if I believe it—but I say it anyway.
He steps forward. I step back.
“She knows me,” he says, low now. “Even if she doesn’t understand it yet. I saw those drawings.”
“You had no right to look through my things.”
“I hadeveryright. She’s mine.”
“She’snota possession,” I snap. “She’s a child. Aperson. And she doesn’t know you. She doesn’tneedyou confusing her world right now.”
“She needs the truth.”
“And the truth is dangerous.”
He moves fast, and suddenly his hand is pressed against the wall beside my head, caging me in. His face is inches from mine, eyes burning.
“You’re still afraid of me,” he says, almost a whisper.
“No.” I swallow hard. “I’m afraid of what happensbecause of you.”
“That some Alliance grunt puts two and two together and figures out your daughter has Vakutan strength and hybrid neural patterns?”
I freeze.
He sees it.
He’s not guessing. Heknows.
“She threw something, didn’t she?”
“She’s achild, Vael.”
He leans back, arms folding.
“She’s more than that.”
“Don’t do this.”
“Rynn—”
“Don’t make this harder than it already is.”
“I missedfive years.I won’t miss another five minutes.”
