Chapter 1

The lights of the press conference felt hot on my face.

I gripped the podium.

My voice was steady, a surprise even to me.

"Effective today, I am announcing my early retirement from investigative journalism."

A quiet gasp went through the room, then a buzz of whispers.

Corrupt city officials probably sighed in relief.

Only one person in that room, Jessica Evans, my former intern, looked genuinely sad.

She even dabbed her eye.

Liar.

This was my rebirth, not an end.

I knew her secret now.

This day, this very announcement, was the start of taking back what she stole.

The memory was still fresh, a raw wound.

The human trafficking story.

Months I spent on it, day and night.

Tracking leads, interviewing terrified victims, piecing together a network that reached into the city's highest offices.

I had names, locations, irrefutable proof.

I was days from publishing.

Then, Jessica Evans, now a "rising star" at a rival agency, broke the story.

My story.

My exact findings, my unique angles, even some of my confidential source details.

She called it "intuition."

The city hailed her a hero, a prodigy.

Me?

I was accused of incompetence, of being too slow.

Some whispered I was holding back, maybe even protecting someone.

My editor, once my biggest supporter, looked at me with pity, then suspicion.

The fallout was brutal.

My career imploded.

My reputation, built over a decade of hard work, shattered.

That was six months ago.

Six months of hell, of trying to understand.

Then, the pattern clicked.

It wasn't just the trafficking story.

Smaller cases, leads I'd been developing – she' d scooped me on them too, always just before I was ready.

Always with an impossible level of detail.

The city was buzzing about a new serial killer, the "Poetic Justice Killer."

His crimes were gruesome, his motives unclear.

I had already started my own file, my mind already connecting dots others missed.

This was the new battleground.

Jessica Evans wouldn't win this one.

I looked out at the reporters, at Jessica's fake tears.

My decision was made.

I would fight.

I had to.