Chapter 16 · Give Emma the Gun

"You signed my husband's death warrant." Emma's voice cut through the dark apartment before Mark even found the light switch.

He froze. Hand still on the doorknob. The silhouette by the window didn't move.

"Emma."

"Don't." She turned. Streetlight caught the side of her face. Tear tracks. Rage underneath. "Lyla gave me the rest of the file. The page you didn't show me. David's handwriting. 'Mark Chen refused extraction. Refused witness protection. Refused to testify.' That was six months before he died."

Mark let the door swing shut behind him. Kept his hands visible. "He told you."

"He told me he begged someone for help and got nothing." Her voice shook. Not grief. Fury. "He told me the one person who could've stopped it all just ran."

"I didn't run."

"Then what do you call it?"

Mark stepped closer. Slow. Like approaching someone on a ledge. "I call it survival. Your husband wanted me to blow the whistle on a police project that shouldn't exist. Wanted me to go public with evidence I couldn't verify. Wanted me to trust that the system wouldn't bury me the second I opened my mouth."

"So you let him die instead.