The Governor’s Wife, His beautiful ruin
Sam’s voice followed after, steady, familiar, the man who had talked me through panic more than once, who knew where the fractures were buried because I’d shown him myself.
People don’t betray you loudly. They don’t announce it. They keep showing up the same way they always have, keep sounding reasonable, keep offering help, and by the time you realize something’s wrong, the damage has already been done.
If Sam was betraying me, he wouldn’t admit it to my face. He’d talk around it. He’d give me enough truth to keep me calm and enough lies to keep me blind.
Sam was good. He always had been. But no one is perfect, and loyalty leaves fingerprints whether it wants to or not.