The kiss still lingered between them when Adrian said it.

“Luca didn’t order the sniper attack.”

Valentina stared at him in disbelief.

His hand still rested against her waist.

Her fingers still gripped the front of his shirt.

The warmth between them hadn’t even faded yet.

And suddenly the entire room felt cold again.

“What?”

Adrian stepped backward slowly.

Too slowly.

Like he already understood exactly what came next.

“The shooters weren’t Moretti soldiers,” he said quietly. “Different training. Different extraction patterns.”

Valentina’s pulse tightened painfully. “Then who sent them?”

Adrian hesitated.

Wrong answer already.

She saw it instantly.

Fear slid coldly beneath her ribs.

Not fear of Luca.

Fear of him.

“Adrian.”

His jaw tightened once.

Then finally:

“The investigation got compromised.”

Valentina stared at him blankly. “What investigation?”

Silence.

Real silence.

The kind that split worlds apart.

Adrian looked away first.

And suddenly she understood.

Not fully.

Not yet.

But enough.

Her stomach dropped hard.

“No.”

His expression darkened immediately.

“Valentina—”

“No.”

She stepped backward from him now like distance itself might reverse the last five minutes.

The kiss.

The confessions.

The tenderness.

Every moment suddenly rearranging itself into something sharper and uglier.

“You’re not just undercover,” she whispered.

Adrian closed his eyes briefly.

Confirmation.

Her chest tightened violently.

“Oh my God.”

The room tilted slightly around her.

All this time.

The safe houses.

The ledgers.

The hidden surveillance systems.

The military contacts.

The disappearing acts.

Not random.

Not survival instinct.

Operation.

Professional operation.

And her—

she had been standing in the middle of it blind.

“You used me.”

The words came quieter than expected.

That almost sounded worse.

Adrian stepped toward her immediately. “No.”

“You lied to me from the beginning.”

“I was trying to protect you.”

“There it is again,” she snapped sharply. “That line.”

Anger crashed through humiliation fast enough to burn.

Valentina shoved him backward hard against the kitchen counter before she even realized she moved.

“You kissed me.”

The accusation echoed through the apartment.

Adrian didn’t defend himself.

That hurt more.

“You let me trust you,” she continued, voice shaking now. “You let me tell you things. You let me believe—”

Her throat closed suddenly around the rest.

Because saying it aloud would make it real.

Adrian looked wrecked standing there.

Not guilty.

Worse.

Torn apart by it.

“Valentina,” he said quietly, “I never meant for this to happen.”

“That’s not comforting.”

“I know.”

The honesty nearly made her angrier.

Valentina laughed once beneath her breath.

Broken sound.

“Jesus Christ. Was any of it real?”

Wrong question.

She saw the damage land instantly across his face.

Too much hesitation.

Not because he was deciding whether to lie.

Because the truth hurt.

Adrian moved toward her carefully again. “The operation was real.”

“There it is.”

“Listen to me—”

“No.”

Her voice cracked sharply.

“No, you listen to me for once.”

The apartment suddenly felt too small for breathing.

Rainwater still streaked faintly across the windows while dawn light crept slowly through Brighton Beach outside, cold and pale and merciless.

Valentina wrapped both arms tightly around herself now like holding her own body together manually.

“How long?” she whispered.

Adrian understood immediately.

“How long what?”

“How long was I useful?”

The question nearly hollowed him visibly.

“Don’t do that.”

“Answer me.”

His silence lasted too long again.

God, he always destroyed everything with silence.

Valentina’s eyes burned sharply now.

“You followed me because of Luca.”

“Yes.”

“You got close to me because of the investigation.”

“At first.”

The clarification landed like another knife anyway.

At first.

Meaning yes.

Meaning every conversation in the beginning carried hidden motives underneath it.

Every touch.

Every warning.

Every moment she started trusting him.

Operational.

Valentina turned away sharply before he could see tears forming again.

Not again.

Not for him.

“You should’ve just let Luca kill me,” she whispered bitterly.

Adrian crossed the room instantly after that.

“No.”

The force behind the word startled both of them.

Valentina looked back toward him.

His control had fractured completely now.

Good.

Let him hurt too.

“You don’t get to say things like that,” Adrian said quietly, voice rough with something dangerously close to panic. “Not after everything.”

“Everything?” she laughed harshly. “What exactly was everything to you?”

The question hit hard enough that he stopped moving entirely.

Because Adrian suddenly realized he didn’t know how to answer without destroying her further.

Mission?

Lie.

Protection?

Incomplete.

Love?

Too dangerous.

Valentina saw the hesitation again and hated him for it.

She grabbed the nearest object from the kitchen counter—a ceramic coffee mug—and hurled it violently across the apartment.

It shattered against the wall beside the surveillance monitors.

Good.

Something deserved breaking.

“I was your informant,” she said shakily. “That’s what this was.”

“No.”

“You watched me cry over my husband while building a case against him.”

His jaw tightened painfully.

“You think I don’t hate myself for that?”

The words froze her briefly.

Because he sounded sincere.

Utterly sincere.

And somehow that made it worse.

Valentina stepped closer again, eyes burning now. “Did your bosses know about me?”

Adrian said nothing.

Wrong answer.

Again.

Her stomach turned violently.

“Oh my God.”

“They knew Luca’s wife existed.”

“That’s not what I asked.”

Adrian dragged one hand across his face roughly before finally answering.

“They knew proximity to you helped access the organization.”

There it was.

The truth.

Ugly.

Professional.

Devastating.

Valentina felt something inside her chest collapse quietly.

Not the attraction.

Not even trust.

Something deeper.

The fragile belief that maybe Adrian saw her as a person before an asset.

She laughed softly through tears threatening again.

“Congratulations,” she whispered. “You got close.”

Adrian looked like she’d shot him.

Good.

He deserved at least part of this pain.

Then suddenly the apartment phone rang sharply through the silence.

Both of them froze instantly.

The sound echoed again.

Once.

Twice.

Three times.

Adrian’s instincts snapped back online immediately.

Danger.

His eyes shifted toward the encrypted line near the kitchen wall.

Only a handful of people had that number.

Valentina wiped angrily at her eyes and stepped backward from him completely.

Distance restored.

Walls restored.

Everything ruined.

“Answer it,” she said coldly.

Adrian stared at her for one terrible second before finally picking up the phone.

“Talk.”

Silence.

Then the color drained slowly from his face.

Valentina’s pulse tightened instantly.

“What happened?”

Adrian lowered the phone gradually.

His expression had become terrifyingly empty again.

Operational.

Deadly.

“What?” she demanded.

Adrian looked directly at her.

And quietly said the words that shattered the room even further.

“Luca knows who I am.”