Chapter 3

He leaned in close, his lips almost brushing my ear.

"If you don't show up at that press conference and say exactly what you're told to say — next time you visit them, that spot will be empty." He straightened up and adjusted his cuffs. "Some things, Melissa, you can't afford to lose."

My fists clenched at my sides.

"Corey." I stood up and looked him dead in the eye. "I'm done."

His steps halted.

I took a deep breath. "I'm leaving. Mrs. Francis — that title, the position, all of it — give it to her. Is that enough?"

The room went dead silent. Nothing but the sound of heartbeats.

I waited for his reaction. Rage. A sneer. Some vicious remark designed to gut me. Any of it would have been fine.

After all, this was the result everyone wanted. He'd get what he always wanted. Amy would get what she'd been scheming for. And I'd finally stop pretending.

But he just stared at me for a few seconds. Then he laughed.

"Leave?" He repeated the word slowly. "You have no friends. No family. No job. Where exactly are you going to go?"

He reached out and gripped my chin, tilting my face up. "Isn't this good enough? Just turn a blind eye to a few things, and we'll call it even."

EVEN?

There was nothing even between us. There never would be.

I'd been counting down the days. One more month — just one — and the classified file from my old unit would be declassified. I could have laid the truth out in front of him. Proved that I never betrayed him. That what he saw that night was a cover operation, not what he thought it was...

But now? I didn't want to explain anymore.

Five years. 1825 days. And this was all I had to show for it — absolutely nothing.

Amy sniffled softly from behind him. Her voice came out thin and delicate. "Corey, please don't be like this..."

"Melissa." Then she looked up at me with those wide, watery eyes. "I really never meant to come between you two. Could you please take that statement down? The comments online are so awful... My parents are terrified..."

"Take it down?" I looked at her. "Without that statement, you'd still just be 'Corey Francis's assistant.' Now the whole world knows your name. Isn't that what you always wanted?"

Amy's mouth opened, but nothing came out.

Corey pulled her behind him in one swift motion — that instinct to shield her, to protect her at all costs. More real than anything he'd shown me in five years combined.

"Melissa!" His voice was low thunder before a storm. "I'm saying this one last time. It's an announcement, not negotiation. Figure it out yourself."

He wrapped his arm around Amy's shoulders, turned, and walked out.

The door clicked shut. I stood there, staring at it, and felt something heavy settle over me — the kind of tired that sleep couldn't fix.

When I married him, I thought he was my safe harbor.

In the end, even my dead parents became leverage in his hands.

Turns out the storm was never outside.

The harbor was indeed the storm itself.