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Chapter 9

last update Tanggal publikasi: 2026-03-01 22:05:22

Chapter 9

Maddox POV

I went to the woods when I needed the truth to stop sounding noble.

That was the problem with leadership. If you stayed inside too long—inside offices, inside meetings, inside rooms where everyone waited for your decision like it was law—you could start believing your own justifications. You could start dressing guilt up as duty and calling it strategy.

The tree line didn’t let me do that.

Out here, the cold had teeth. The ground was uneven. The air smelled like damp earth,
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