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It’s just us now.
“You said we do this together,” I continue. “That didn’t change overnight.”
Her eyes flicker—there, then gone.
“It didn’t,” she says.
“Then why are you acting like it did?”
She exhales slowly.
Controlled.
Measured.
There it is again.
That restraint.
That pull inward.
“Because things changed,” she says.
“How?”
She hesitates.
That’s new.
Scout doesn’t hesitate.
Not like this.
I lean forward slightly, lowering my voice.
“Say it.”
Her eyes lock onto mine.
And for a second—
I think she will.
I see it.
Right there.
Then—
“It’s not relevant to the mission,” she says.
And that—
That’s the wrong answer.
I straighten slowly.
“No,” I reply quietly. “That’s exactly what it is.”
