ALDRIC
A few heads turned immediately at the mention of that name.
"And there are more," she continued quickly. "So many more people working with him."
She began listing names then.
The first few tightened something in my chest because I recognized them immediately. People I had met privately. Individuals who had provided useful information or influence when the situation required it.
But the list did not stop there.
More names followed.
Some of them belonged to people I had never heard of.
Others sounded suspiciously convenient.
It took only a few seconds for the realization to settle into place.
Cian had prepared this.
He had mixed truth with fiction so carefully that any attempt to defend myself would risk exposing the parts that were actually real. If I denied everything, someone might eventually uncover the pieces that were true. If I tried to argue the details, I might accidentally confirm something worse.
The trap was elegant in its simplicity.
