Page 21 of Pocket Wife

I hate how close he’s come to kindness. It would be easier if he were cold. Easier if he dismissed the valley outright, if he sneered like Corvek, if his careful words didn’t keep circling the truth I don’t want to admit.

I’m afraid.

Not of Helix alone. Of standing in front of my people with half-formed proof and watching hope collapse if I’m wrong. Of waiting too long and letting fear rot them from the inside. Of trusting a man who could leave on the next shuttle with his career bruised but intact while my whole life remains in the ground.

“You get to be careful,” I say quietly. “I have to be believed.”

Rethan’s face goes still. Not blank. Listening.

“I understand that distinction,” he says.

“Do you?”

His eyes hold mine. “I am beginning to.”

The archive lights cast a hard white glow over the table. Beyond the door, someone calls my name, then stops as if warned not to interrupt.

We’re standing too close now. I know it because I can see the faint bioluminescent pattern beneath the skin at his throat, pale as moonlit frost. I know it because he’s lowered his voice and I’ve lowered mine, and anger has become something tighter than argument.

Rethan looks away first.

Only to the receipt.

“We can tell them there are serious inconsistencies,” he says. “We can tell them the inquiry has expanded. We can ask for more documents, more witnesses, more time. But we do not name fraud until the evidence can survive Helix trying to kill it.”

I breathe through the answer I want to give.

Outside, the waiting voices rise again.

“Fine,” I say at last. “Serious inconsistencies. Expanded inquiry. More witnesses.”

Then I add, “But I speak first.”

His gaze returns to me. “Yes.”

The single word surprises me more than an argument would have.

I gather the receipt, the ledger copy, and three witness statements into a folder. When I reach for the door, Rethan moves with me, not ahead, not behind.

Beside me.

The cooperative hall doors open, and every frightened face turns to me for an answer I’m still learning how to give.

CHAPTER 10

RETHAN

The objection arrives before I finish filing the expanded inquiry.

Helix doesn’t wait for sunrise. Their legal office transmits a formal challenge at 04:17 settlement time, followed by jurisdictional complaints and a request to remove me from the case for demonstrated bias. Each document wears immaculate formatting. Each cites procedure, precedent, and resource law with the confidence of people accustomed to paper becoming power.

I read them all.

Then I attach them to the evidence matrix.

If Helix wishes to document its fear, I won’t interfere.

The records room emptied after Lucy addressed the waiting families. Her words were careful, but not weak. Serious inconsistencies. Expanded inquiry. More witnesses needed. Do not sign relocation agreements. Do not let anyone take private records. Report every Helix visit.