For a moment, Marcus couldn’t move. He stood frozen at the top of the stairs, his eyes locked on the woman dancing beneath the swaying chandelier. Melissa. Her laughter floated through the air, soft and careless, like she had never broken him. Like she hadn’t thrown him out when he had nothing left. Every part of him wanted to look away, to let the system’s mission burn itself out. But his chest tightened again, the pendant pulsing with painful urgency. One minute, forty seconds. Target in danger. Marcus’s breath caught. He saw the chandelier’s chain shift and make a sound that was drowned by the music and laughter. No one noticed. No one except him. He clenched his fists and started down the stairs, his heart pounding faster with every step. The crowd blurred before him, faces, colors, laughter, all blending as he brushed past them forcefully towards Melissa. He hesitated halfway, his mind screaming at him. She doesn’t deserve it. She betrayed you. She chose someo