“You always did love giving orders.”
“I learned from professionals.”
Her breath hitched, anger cracking through the polish.
“You think that uniform makes you untouchable,” she said. “But uniforms come off. Titles disappear. A woman can be made small very quickly when the right people decide she has forgotten her place.”
Beside me, Colonel Alvarez’s expression hardened.
I reached for a notepad and wrote: TRACE CALL? He nodded and stepped out swiftly.
“Linda,” I said, keeping my voice even, “listen carefully. The forged deeds, the pension documents, the insurance forms, the fake credentials Ryan carried this morning—those are crimes. Not family misunderstandings. Not private marriage issues. Crimes.”
“You’re using big words because you’re scared.”
“No. I’m using accurate ones because you should be.”
She laughed then, low and bitter.
“You don’t even know his real name.”
I looked at the sealed court record.
“Neither does he, apparently.”
The silence that followed told me I had finally struck bone.
