Ares's POV
The room is too quiet.
Not the calm kind.
The heavy kind.
The kind that usually comes before an explosion.
Board members sit frozen… eyes on Jasmine, eyes on Zara, eyes on the glowing screen filled with proof no one can unsee. Jasmine is still standing beside the screen, shoulders squared, breathing slow. Zara looks like she's drowning in the very silence she created.
I rose from my seat.
Slowly.
Deliberately.
Every head turns toward me.
"Since there is confusion," I say, "let me finish this."
Zara's head snaps up. "There's nothing to finish!"
I ignored her.
I walk to the front of the room, past Jasmine, and pick up the small black drive sitting beside the laptop.
The drive.
The one we found last night.
The hidden file.
The file Zara hoped we'd never open.
The board follows my every movement. The air smells faintly metallic… like the tension itself has a taste.
I hold up the drive between my fingers.
