Unscripted Surrender

ROWAN’S POV

My spine stiffens. I know what this is.

He’s going to plead his case. He’s going to explain why Vance should keep him, why the twenty years of service outweigh the sixty-three bodies, why firing him would be politically catastrophic.

He’s going to be logical and measured and strategically compelling because that’s what Malachi does — he engineers outcomes.

And he’s come to me because h