Page 58 of Choosing Stella

I waited until she drank more water.

Then Stella glanced at the cards she hadn’t finished wrapping.

“You don’t have to tell me anything.”

Justice reversed sat between us.

“I was Italian Special Forces.”

She stayed still.

I hadn’t planned to say it.

That was probably why I kept going.

“My unit was sent into a covert operation that people above us already knew was compromised.”

Stella’s fingers tightened around her glass.

“They sent you anyway?”

“Yes.”

I could still remember the first burst of gunfire.

“Men from my unit died. I survived.”

She didn’t ask how many.

“Afterward, I found enough to know the failure hadn’t been accidental. Senior officials knew what they were sending us into.”

“And you tried to expose it.”

“I refused to accept the version they wanted me to accept.”

“What happened?”

“They made me the problem.”

She didn’t interrupt.

“The scapegoat.”

“Yes.”

My next words came rougher than I wanted.

“I became inconvenient because I was alive, asking questions, and unwilling to shut up about men who’d died because people above them lied about what happened.”

Stella glanced at Justice reversed again.

“That’s what I saw.”

“I know.”

“You believe me?”

I let out a breath.