The Missing Second

There are moments that almost happen. A failure that nearly forms. A fracture that begins—then disappears without trace. No delay. No error. No consequence. The world does not break. It is corrected. Liam Carter is trained to anticipate disruption. To read patterns before they collapse. But when those collapses stop occurring, when probability fails without explanation, he begins to see what others don’t. Something is removing the moment before it exists. At first, it is subtle. Then it becomes deliberate. Then it begins to notice him. Because the system that preserves reality does not tolerate observation. And the more Liam understands it, the more he becomes part of what must be corrected.