The Betrayal Unfolds

Lies are built on silence, but the truth will always scream.

Adrian....

The man was tied to a chair, his lip split, blood dripping onto the concrete floor. He had been defiant for the past hour, despite the bruises blooming across his jaw, despite the slow, methodical ways we had broken him down.

Yet he still smirked.

Celeste stood beside me, her arms crossed, tension rolling off her in waves. Her expression was carefully neutral, but I could feel the way her breath had changed—shallow, restrained.

I stepped forward, gripping the man's chin roughly, forcing him to look at me. "One last chance," I murmured, my voice like steel. "Who sent you?"

The man chuckled, the sound wet with blood. But his gaze flicked past me, landing on Celeste, and something shifted.

He tilted his head, a cruel amusement dancing in his bruised eyes. "I wonder," he mused, spitting blood onto the floor. "I wonder if he'll still want you when he knows the whole truth. When he knows who you truly are."

Celeste stiffened beside me. My grip on his jaw tightened.

Before I could press further, the sharp crack of a gunshot sliced through the air. Blood splattered across my arm as the man's head snapped back violently, his body slumping forward in the chair.

Celeste gasped, stepping back.

I didn't flinch.

I had felt the moment before it happened. The shift in the air, the certainty of an unseen presence watching from above. This had been orchestrated.

Slowly, I wiped the blood from my sleeve and turned toward the warehouse entrance.

Celeste's voice cut through the thick silence. "That's it? You're just walking away?"

I kept moving.

"Adrian!" she snapped, grabbing my arm. "You're not even surprised. You knew this was coming."

I exhaled slowly, dragging a hand through my hair before facing her. The storm in her eyes was unreadable, but I had spent enough time deciphering Celeste Carter to know what was coming next.

She wanted answers. And for the first time, I was willing to give them.

"You think I didn't know?" I said, voice dangerously soft. I stepped closer, watching her carefully. "You think I didn't figure it out the moment you walked into my life?"

Her brows furrowed. "What are you talking about?"

I let out a humorless chuckle, shaking my head. "You, Celeste." I leaned in, my voice dropping lower. "The way you move, the way you react. The way you hesitate when you should've pulled the trigger without a second thought."

A flash of something crossed her face—shock, maybe. Or something deeper. Something vulnerable.

"I've known all along." My words were slow, deliberate. "That you're FBI. Agent 006. Started her training from age 15 and officially joined when 18. Completed first mission successfully after the first month of joining. The most trusted and beloved agent of FBI. I had my doubts when William's daughter or should I say foster daughter who had nothing to do with business suddenly shows up at my party and then gets involved in my life."

Celeste took a step back like I had struck her. "You're lying."

"Am I?" I tilted my head, watching her, savoring the moment. "Or did you really think you were playing me all this time? Celeste there is reason that I run the underworld. That I rule the underworld."

She shook her head, as if trying to process the weight of my confession. "If you knew, then why—"

"Why let you keep going?" I smirked. "Because, Ogonëk, you were more useful to me inside than you ever would've been on the outside. And you were not a harm soo—"

Her breath hitched at the nickname.

I watched her closely, waiting for her to put the pieces together. I could see it—the way her mind was racing, the way her lips parted slightly as she tried to form words that wouldn't come.

She had spent so much time watching me, studying me, believing she had the upper hand. And now, the ground was shifting beneath her.

"You played along," she whispered, half-disbelieving.

I let the silence answer for me.

Celeste's expression hardened, her hands curling into fists. "You used me."

I shrugged. "And you used me. That's how this game works, isn't it?"

For the first time, I saw something flicker behind her gaze—something like hurt. It was gone in an instant, buried beneath the layers of steel she had spent years perfecting.

She exhaled sharply, stepping back. "You think you have it all figured out, don't you? You don't know these people Adrian. You will get killed."

I smiled. "I don't think, Celeste. I know and why are you worried, isn't it your mission?"

"No, I don't want you dead. They need you alive" she says with a cold tone.

"Celeste" I call out her name while looking deep into her eyes . Eyes that I have always lost mysel into, "Was it all a mission?" I ask.

She stared at me for a long moment, her breathing uneven. The tension between us thickened, crackling like static in the air. But this time, it wasn't just frustration.

It was something else entirely.

Something dangerous.

And I welcomed it.