Bram’s lawyer put the family threats at the top of the statement.
He could see the reason. The messages were real. So were the visits, the knowledge that refusal could reach beyond him into a household whose names Aegis kept ready. A tribunal should hear that. Bram had spent enough nights listening for a vehicle outside to know fear was not a decoration added afterward to make obedience sound less voluntary.
But on the page, every order followed the threat as though nothing existed between them.
He moved the first account of a mission above the copied messages.
His lawyer watched him do it. “The context matters.”
“So does what I did.”
“We’re not omitting it.”
“We’re making it look inevitable.”
