The blade moved silently across Jade's skin, not cutting, but teaching.
Jake stood behind her in the training room, his voice low, steady.
"Again. Slower."
Jade gritted her teeth, sweat dripping down her spine. Her arms ached, her breath came fast, but she didn't stop.
She wouldn't.
"Twist your wrist, good. Control, not speed."
Her eyes narrowed in focus. She struck again, and this time, Jake nodded.
It had been three weeks since the attack at the penthouse. Since the mysterious message. Since Elena disappeared.
And in that time, Jade had changed.
No more waiting to be saved. No more hiding behind soft sketches and second chances.
Jake was teaching her to survive.
And she was learning faster than anyone expected.
Later, as she sat on the mat catching her breath, Jake knelt beside her.
"You're getting better."
She gave him a faint smile. "Maybe I just want to stop being prey."
Jake looked at her for a long moment. "You never were."
---
That night, Jade wandered the halls of the penthouse, restless.
She paused at Jake's office door. It was cracked open.
She pushed it gently.
Inside, the room was dim, lit only by a desk lamp. Files lay open, photos, documents, names.
And one picture, face-up: Elena.
Her pulse spiked.
Jake entered behind her.
"She's not who she said she was," he said quietly.
Jade turned to him. "You think she's the mole?"
"I think she's working both sides."
Jade's heart twisted. "She saved my life."
Jake's expression hardened. "That doesn't mean she won't take it later."
Elsewhere in the city, Elena stood under the glow of a flickering streetlight, phone pressed to her ear.
"She's waking up," she said.
A pause.
"Yes. Just like her mother."
Back at the penthouse, Jade stood at the window, thoughts swirling.
She didn't know what scared her more, Elena's betrayal, or the truth Jake was still keeping from her.
But deep down, a seed of suspicion had been planted.
And it was starting to grow.
Jade couldn't sleep that night.
She lay awake, staring at the ceiling, her thoughts racing faster than her heartbeat. Something was shifting, not just around her, but inside her.
Jake was hiding things. Elena had vanished. Strangers were showing up at her door. And now this talk of her mother?
She didn't even remember her mother. Only bits and pieces. A warm laugh. A lullaby in a foreign tongue. Then silence.
And now, someone else remembered her.
Someone who clearly didn't want to be found.
The next morning, Jade sat alone in the kitchen. Jake was gone, as usual, before sunrise. She sipped her coffee in silence, watching the city stir below.
Her phone buzzed.
No number.
Just a message:
"Look deeper. Your blood isn't clean."
She froze.
The screen blurred as a chill crept down her spine.
What did they mean?
She went to Jake's office.
This time, she didn't hesitate.
She opened the drawer where she'd seen the photo of Elena the night before.
It wasn't there.
But what she found instead was worse.
A sealed envelope.
Her name on it.
Inside: a birth certificate.
But it wasn't hers.
It was her mother's.
"Lucia Cardenas".
The name hit her like a blow. Mexican. 1984. Listed occupation: confidential.
Under next of kin, a scribbled name had been blacked out.
The document was marked by an unfamiliar seal, military? Government?
Why would Jake have this?
Why hadn't he told her?
---
She confronted him that night.
He returned just after midnight, shoulders tense, face drawn. His shirt was stained with blood not his. His jaw was tight.
Jade didn't wait for explanations.
"Who was Lucia Cardenas?"
Jake froze mid-step.
The silence between them thickened.
He met her eyes.
"You found the file."
She nodded. "You were never going to tell me."
Jake ran a hand through his hair, the weight of truth dragging his shoulders down.
"She was your mother. And she wasn't just anyone."
Jade's hands trembled. "What was she?"
Jake's eyes darkened. "She was one of us."
---
The words echoed like gunshots in her chest.
"You're saying she was in the mafia?"
"No. Worse. She was with a covert cartel that made ours look like children playing war. She defected. Disappeared. And when she died, a lot of powerful people wanted her secrets buried with her."
Jade swallowed hard. "And me?"
"You were the secret."
Jade felt the floor shift beneath her. Her entire life had been built on lies. A quiet upbringing, a broken family, a city escape… all of it, a cover for something deeper.
"I should've known sooner," she whispered.
Jake stepped closer. "I wanted to keep you away from all of this. But now they know who you are."
She met his gaze. "You mean they know what I am."
---
Later that night, she stood alone on the balcony, wind cold against her skin.
Her mind raced.
What if the mole wasn't just after Jake?
What if they were after her bloodline?
After her?
In a hidden chamber beneath the city, Elena stood before a man cloaked in shadow.
"She's starting to ask questions," she said.
"She should," the man replied. "It's in her blood to seek the truth."
"And Jake?"
"He's already too attached. He won't kill her."
Elena hesitated. "Should I?"
The man's silence was colder than death.
Jade didn't sleep. Again.
The night air bit at her skin as she stood barefoot on the cold tile floor, staring at the skyline. Everything she knew about herself, her past, her family, even her own name felt like glass shattering underfoot.
Jake appeared behind her, silent as ever.
"I didn't want you to find out like this."
She didn't turn to him. "But you weren't going to tell me at all, were you?"
A beat of silence passed.
"I didn't think it would matter."
"That's the problem," she said. "You think what matters is what threatens *you*. Not what wrecks *me*."
Jake's voice softened. "You're stronger than you think."
"That doesn't mean I wanted to be built from lies and blood."
He stepped closer, but didn't touch her. "I kept it from you because your mother tried to leave that world behind. She didn't want it to find you."
Jade finally looked at him, her eyes glassy with unshed tears. "Then why did it?"
Jake's stare was hard. "Because someone's dragging her ghost back."
The next morning, Luca arrived with bad news.
"Elena's gone dark. Our people spotted her near the old cathedral in Sector 12. That place was cartel territory twenty years ago."
Jake clenched his fists. "She's working with them."
"Looks like it," Luca replied. "But there's more…"
He handed Jake a file.
Inside: photos of Jade. Recent ones.
Taken from a distance. Some at the shop. Some at the penthouse. One from two nights ago, on the balcony.
Jake's blood ran cold.
"They're watching her."
Jade stood outside the room, having overheard everything.
They were tracking her. Not Jake. Her.
She slipped away before anyone noticed.
At the train station, Jade blended into the crowd. Hoodie up, face low. She didn't know where she was going, only that she had to go. She couldn't wait around to be hunted or protected like a glass doll.
But someone was already waiting.
Elena.
Sitting on a bench, casual as ever, like this was just another meeting.
"You're not very good at disappearing, Jade," she said.
Jade stiffened. "I'm not here for games."
"Good. Because I don't play them."
She stood, slipping something into Jade's coat pocket.
"A piece of your mother's story. The real one."
Then she walked away without another word.
Jade opened the folded paper.
Coordinates.
A single name: Santiago Cardenas.
And beneath it, a warning scrawled in tight handwriting:
"Jake doesn't know everything."
Back at the penthouse, Jake realized Jade was gone.
Panic wasn't something he allowed himself often.
But when it hit, it was lethal.
He grabbed his gun. "We find her. Now."
Because if they got to her before he did, there wouldn't be a war.
There would be 'massacre'.