I held his gaze. Waited.
He swallowed. “I leaked it.”
The air left my lungs.
“You what?”
He didn’t flinch. “The mappin’ data. I started Archer down the path in Melbourne.”
I took a step forward, slow and deliberate. My mind raced over every conversation we’d had, everything about her sources. She never gave any hint that it started with my own engineer.
“Does she know it was you?”
“I didn’t give her my name. I used a burner address. She doesn't know who I am. I didn’t want it to happen this way. But it was already out of control. Ross wouldn’t stop. Hartmann wouldn’t stop. And I couldn’t live with it any more.”
Silence fell. Cold and sharp.
“You used her,” I said. “You knew what this would do.”
“I thought I could protect you.”
My jaw clenched. “By blowing up the team I drive for? The titles I fought for? Everything we built together?”
“By draggin’ it all into the light before someone else did and made you look complicit,” he snapped, then caught himself, reining it in. “I didn’t want it to come down on you, Aleks. That’s the truth.”
I stared at him, heart thudding in my chest.
“I trusted you,” I said. “Like family.”
“I know.”
“You taught me to win clean,” I said. “You drilled that into me from the start. No short cuts. No bullshit.”
“I failed you,” he said simply.
I held his gaze. “Yes. You did.”
It hurt him. I could see it.
I didn’t know what else to say. My skin felt tight. My pulse thrummed in my ears.
“This doesn’t fix anything,” I said at last.
“No,” he agreed. “But it’s a start.”
He looked up at me again, eyes raw.
“I’m going to the FIA. Today. I’ll tell them everything. Officially. You won’t be named.”
“You think that’ll matter?”
“I think it’s the right thing to do. And for once, I’m not going to hide behind anyone else’s decisions.”
I nodded once. Short. Sharp.
“I’m not ready to forgive you,” I said.
He gave a tired smile. “Didn’t expect you to.”
