That drug raid should have ended perfectly—the narcotics den was destroyed, and the entire team had pulled out.

But in the rubble, I found that list of protectors, enough to bring down the entire drug chain.

When I desperately rushed back with the blood-stained evidence, what greeted me was my captain Felipe Lester's gun.

The moment the bullet pierced my chest, I heard him shout into the radio, "Maverick Peterson has turned traitor! He's covering for the cartel!"

I was gunned down by my own comrades on the border, my body hastily burned.

Overnight, my name was carved onto the wall of shame.

My mother's windows were smashed. My father, driven to rage, suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and was left paralyzed.

Adrienne Olsen, my wife, married Felipe and took my daughter, Paula Peterson, with her as his stepdaughter.

Three years later, during the reconstruction of the border monument, a charred skeleton was unearthed from the ground.

That fireproof memory card, which I had forcibly stuffed deep into the bullet hole in my chest, surfaced.

"Felipe, it is too cold down here. I want you all to keep me company," I murmured to myself.

***

The excavator's roar cut off abruptly at the worksite.

In the shovel lay a blackened, curled skeleton, bits of gristle still clinging to the bone. I'd been trapped here for three years.

"Is that ... a skeleton?"

Young officer Geoffrey Everett recoiled, his voice trembling.

Veteran Detective Bradley Mosley spat out his cigarette, his gaze icy. "Who else? Maverick. The traitor.

"Killed his own colleagues to protect the drug traffickers. Got what he deserved, dying out here."

My spirit hovered, invisible nails digging into intangible palms.

A traitor? I bled for the team, for this country. How did I become the villain?

My gaze cut through the crowd, landing on two familiar figures.

Adrienne stood stiff in her dress uniform, face unreadable.

Beside her was Felipe, now Captain of the Narcotics Division, gently adjusting her collar.

My most trusted and respected captain was now my wife's new husband.

It was the same man who, three years ago, aimed and pulled the trigger on me.

"Captain Lester, Ms. Olsen... The remains?" Geoffrey asked uncertainly.

Adrienne's eyes flicked over the skeleton. Her fingers tightened, then relaxed. "John Doe protocol. Cremate it tomorrow."

"Wait."

Felipe stepped forward, his eyes locked on my chest.

"What's that in there?"

He tried to pry it out, but my skeletal fingers held fast.

"Doesn't matter."

He pulled back, pale. "Just a piece of trash. Get rid of it. Don't delay the monument's reconstruction."

Adrienne gave the bones one last, long look before turning away.

My soul followed them, drifting into the home that once belonged to me.

Felipe and Adrienne's wedding photo dominated the living room wall. Adrienne, smiling softly, held a little girl.

That girl looked exactly like me.

"Dad, where do people go when they die?" Paula asked, tugging at Felipe's shirt.

Felipe knelt, patting her head. "Good people, the kind ones, they go to a place where angels live."

"What about the bad people?"

"Bad people..."

Felipe stopped short, his expression darkening.

Adrienne approached with a fruit bowl, her look uneasy. "Don't fill her head with that, Felipe. Paula, homework. Now."

After Paula left, Felipe drew Adrienne close, his voice low. "Still thinking about him? A traitor. After all this time?

"If you hadn't testified back then, said Maverick was working with the drug traffickers, I wouldn't be Captain. And his benefits got us this house.

"Honestly, I owe him one."

I watched, a silent scream wanting to rip his lips apart.

My death benefits were spent on their house.

I stared at Adrienne. No smile touched her lips, but she didn't correct him.

She just leaned into his embrace and murmured, "Stop. It's over. Let's just live our lives."

"What? You're not over him?"

An edge crept into Felipe's tone.

Adrienne softly pressed her fingers to his mouth, then hugged him.

"I'm happy now. I have you."

I hovered, witnessing their embrace, the hatred inside me a scalding tide threatening to consume my very spirit.

Adrienne looked up suddenly. "Felipe, let's go to the county clerk's office tomorrow."

Felipe stilled.

"Remove Maverick's name from the family record. Add yours.

"You, me, and Paula. We're the family now."

Her quiet words were blades twisting in my heart.

Surprise flashed in Felipe's eyes before he crushed her against him. "Adrienne, are you sure?"

She rested her head on his shoulder, voice steady. "Yes.

"The past is past. We move forward. Happiness is for the living, for our future.

"Paula needs a proper stepfather. I want her to have a good life."

Felipe bent his head, his lips brushing her hair.

"We'll go first thing in the morning.

"From now on, there's no Maverick. Just us and Paula."

My soul shook with a violent tremor, straining against its invisible chains.

Eight years ago, one summer day, I'd held the house deed, knelt right in the living room, and offered Adrienne the ring. "Adrienne, marry me. This is our home. I'll protect you with my life."

When Paula was born, she became another reason to fight.

Adrienne used to say, "Maverick, I don't need anything else. Just you. Safe forever."

Now she was erasing me from this home forever.

My eyes were fixed on Felipe's face, a sickening wave rolling through me.

He was once my captain, my most trusted buddy in the Narcotics Division.

Three years back, during that takedown, a grenade landed right at our feet. I didn't hesitate. I slammed into Felipe, taking us both to the ground.

Shrapnel ripped across my arm, leaving a deep, ugly gash.

"Maverick! You idiot!" Felipe's voice shook as he held me. "You could've died!"

"I was scared!" I grinned through the pain. "But you're my Captain. I couldn't let you die."

For months after, every time Adrienne saw the scar when I was showering, she'd gently blow on it. "Stop being so reckless. I worry about you."

"It's fine. For Captain Lester, this is nothing."

Back then, Felipe would clap me on the shoulder at every gathering and say, "Maverick, I owe you my life. I've got your back, no matter what."

I believed him. I trusted him like a brother and told him everything.

He was the first to know I was planning to propose to Adrienne.

And him?

He started circling my house, showing up with Adrienne's favorite desserts, buying her expensive skincare, and fixing things around the house.

When I was deployed on long operations, he'd volunteer to check in on her.

Adrienne brought it up more than once. "Maverick, Felipe's intensity makes me uncomfortable."

I always made excuses for him. "He's just grateful. Thinks of you as family. Don't read into it.

"He's like my brother. He'd never cross that line."

She'd frown. "But..."

But she let it drop.

Felipe only backed off after Adrienne got pregnant with Paula. I was naive enough to feel grateful.

I never saw that he was just setting the board for a bigger play.

Every bit of that "concern", every word, every gesture, was a calculated move to drive a wedge between us, to make room for himself.

I was the idiot who welcomed a snake into my home, who nearly handed him my wife.

Felipe's performance was flawless.

The man I trusted most fired the shot that killed me.

My mind snapped back to that border operation three years prior.

Three hours before the raid, a small group of locals stood near our temporary outpost.

"Sir, please, you have to help," an elderly woman begged, her thin hand clutching my sleeve, trembling. "My son... They forced him to work for them, just one time, and then they killed him!

"They said he was a volunteer, but they took him at gunpoint!"

"Those men have people protecting them," a middle-aged man whispered, his eyes wide with fear.

"Last time someone talked, they were accused of making false claims. My man got beaten up for it!"

I looked past them. The local sheriff was talking quietly with a man in a suit.

The man's gold watch screamed money and influence.

The sheriff noticed me watching and quickly walked over.

"Sir, please ignore them," he said, his smile too smooth. "That family's boy... He had problems. It's all rumors. There are no protectors here."

"Really?" I said, my voice cold.

"Then why did we never hear about the previous tip? Who stopped it?"

The sheriff's smile vanished. Felipe stepped between us.

"Let it go, Maverick," he said. "Their stories are inconsistent. It's not actionable intel."

"But the details match our own leads."

I kept my eyes on the sheriff. "Who was the man you were talking to?"

Felipe's jaw tightened. "He's a local informant. That's all. Focus on the mission. Don't get distracted." He changed the topic.

I looked at him then. For the first time, I saw something unfamiliar in his eyes, something I couldn't read.