Page 144 of Forged

I turn back to Gabriel, a sinking stone in my stomach, worry surging through every vein in my body.

“Tell me what?” I ask, my voice quieter now, but no less intense. “Gabriel, what is he talking about?”

For a second, I think he’s not going to answer.

His throat works as he swallows, his hands curling at his sides like he’s trying to hold himself together long enough to get the words out.

When he speaks, his voice is low and strained.

“I was working for Veleno.”

The world tilts. Everything feels off balance, like the ground beneath me just shifted and I didn’t move with it.

“What?” The word comes out empty.

“I was sent here by Sera Corrigan,” he continues, his voice strained as he forces himself through it. “To find the Blackwater Key. To hand it over to Sera. To?—”

“No.” I shake my head, cutting him off before he can finish.

“I didn’t know you when it all started,” he says, the words rushed now, desperate in a way I’ve never heard from him. “When I took the job, I didn’t know you. I didn’t know Neomi. I didn’t?—”

“You lied to me?” I snap.

The accusation lands between us like a blade.

I can plainly see he’s telling the truth. It’s in the way he’s standing. In the way his voice is breaking. In the way he isn’t defending himself the way he should be if this were anything else.

“I never thought I would fall for you. For Neomi,” he says quietly.

And that quiet honesty—that’s the last thread holding my restraint intact.

“You’ve been here,” I say, my voice lowering, losing some of its force as realization starts to bleed through. “You’ve been in my home. In our bed. With my wife?—”

“I swear, Lars, I never lied about my feelings foryou and Neomi.”

“You didn’t?” I demand, stepping forward again, anger finally catching, finally taking root inside me. “You just accidentally ended up in my life while you needed to gain access to my family? You just accidentally fell into my fucking bed?”

“I didn’t plan that,” he says, and there are tears in his eyes now, undeniable. “I didn’t plan on falling in love with you.”

“That doesn’t change what you did.”

“No…it doesn’t,” he says, his voice breaking. “But I abandoned the mission,” he continues, his gaze locking onto mine like he needs me to hear this part. “I walked away from it. I chose you and Neomi. I was coming to tell Enzo before?—”

“Before you got caught,” Enzo cuts in sharply.

Gabriel flinches.

“I didn’t know I was caught. I can show you the text to Sera that I was abandoning the mission.”

My chest constricts, something darker creeping in beneath the anger.

“You were in my home,” I say slowly. “Knowing what you were here to do.”

“Yes.”

“And you let me fall for you. Even after I told you about my world, after I came clean, you kept it a secret. You had countless opportunities to tell me.”

He tilts his head back, tears spilling from his eyes. “Yes.”