Chapter 17 · The File Marked for Deletion

"Get out of my head, Mara. Now."

Adrian's hand locked around my wrist before I could touch the black wall inside his memory core.

His fingers were hot. Too hot. The marriage mark beneath our skin burned between us, pulsing like a second heartbeat.

"You dragged me in here," I snapped. "You don't get to throw me out because I found the locked door."

"That door is locked for a reason."

"Then stop standing in front of it."

He yanked me back.

The record chamber twisted. One second, I stood on a glass floor above the city archive. The next, I was trapped inside Adrian's memory—surrounded by black panels sealed with white legal script.

His memories. His lies. His buried evidence.

Behind the last wall, my mother's voice kept calling his name.

"Adrian. If she reaches the core, the purge will see her as part of you."

The recording crackled through the dark.

My stomach dropped. "Mom?"

Adrian's grip tightened. "Don't listen to it."

"That was her voice."

"It's a recording."

"You knew it was here."

His jaw clenched. "I knew there was a chance."

"A chance?