diff --git a/apps/fc-ttsreader/fc-ttsreader.yaml b/apps/fc-ttsreader/fc-ttsreader.yaml
index d91aa58..b756e2c 100644
--- a/apps/fc-ttsreader/fc-ttsreader.yaml
+++ b/apps/fc-ttsreader/fc-ttsreader.yaml
@@ -169,7 +169,7 @@ spec:
         runAsUser: 1654
       containers:
         - name: align
-          image: localhost/fc-speech-align:v2
+          image: localhost/fc-speech-align:v3
           imagePullPolicy: Never
           ports:
             - containerPort: 9200
diff --git a/apps/fc-ttsreader/speech-align/app.py b/apps/fc-ttsreader/speech-align/app.py
index 092bb48..70652eb 100644
--- a/apps/fc-ttsreader/speech-align/app.py
+++ b/apps/fc-ttsreader/speech-align/app.py
@@ -128,10 +128,17 @@ async def align(audio: UploadFile = File(...), language: str = Form(DEFAULT_LANG
     for segment in segments:
         text_parts.append(segment.text.strip())
         for word in (segment.words or []):
+            # Field names MUST match the FlowerCore.Shared.Speech contract:
+            # `text` / `startMs` / `endMs`. The deployed FasterWhisperAlignmentClient
+            # ignores any other names — see Common's
+            # FasterWhisperAlignmentResponse / FasterWhisperWord.
             words.append({
-                "word": word.word.strip(),
-                "startSeconds": float(word.start or 0.0),
-                "endSeconds": float(word.end or 0.0),
+                "text": word.word.strip(),
+                "startMs": int((word.start or 0.0) * 1000),
+                "endMs": int((word.end or 0.0) * 1000),
+                # Confidence is informational and ignored by the C# client today,
+                # but kept on the wire for future scoring + fc-align operators
+                # that want to surface low-confidence words.
                 "confidence": float(getattr(word, "probability", 0.0) or 0.0),
             })