Madison’s POV
I knew before the proof reached my hands. It was a quiet certainty, the kind that settles in your bones long before the mind accepts it. Still, when Austin laid the reports on the table, maps marked with altered patrol routes, coded messages intercepted and decoded, timelines that aligned too cleanly with Charity’s questions, I felt something inside me tear loose.
Not shock. Grief.
“She didn’t just talk,” Austin said carefully. “She provided schedules. Defensive adjustments. Council movements.”
I stared at the ink until the letters blurred. “Why?”
His jaw tightened. “Dylan offered protection. For her family.”
The room felt suddenly smaller. “She would never…”
“She did,” he replied softly.
I closed my eyes, memories crashing over me, Charity’s arms around me in the cou
