The hallway spins just slightly, like the words have knocked something loose in me. Because I’d asked myself that same question a hundred times.How?How could my father, who’d always been an excellent driver, crash?
Into a tree. When the roads were completely clear.
They said it was an accident.
But something in me had never believed it.
I hear Christian speak again after a long silence, sounding horrified. “My god, Kai. What have you done?” Christian’s voice comes again after a beat, louder this time. Rougher. “What is wrong with you? Where is your sense ofmorality?”
And then Kai speaks. Soft. Almost bored. Like he’s correcting a child.
“There is no such thing.”
Unable to stand any more, I push off the wall before I can talk myself out of it, and step into the doorway.
“My father was murdered?” I say, my voice shaking.
Christian turns fast, eyes widening when he sees me. “Adeline—”
But Kai… Kai doesn’t move. He doesn’t even flinch. His expression stays exactly the same, like he already knew I was there.
Christian looks from me to Kai, then back again. “You shouldn’t have heard that.”
“But I did,” I whisper. “And you didn’t answer me. Was he murdered?”
Christian hesitates. And it’s the kind of pause that gives everything away before he even opens his mouth. The kind that saysyeswithout saying the word.
He sighs, running a hand down his face. “We didn’t want to involve you until we were sure. We’re still not. But… yes. We think someone tampered with his brakes.”
I blink. “What?”
“They were cut,” Christian says tightly. “Clean. Whoever did it knew exactly what they were doing. It was subtle and meant to fail gradually. On the highway, with enough speed, the car would lose control. It did.”
The room goes blurry for a second. I don’t know if it’s my eyes or my brain shutting down.
“The crash,” I say slowly, “it wasn’t an accident.”
“No,” Christian admits. “It was planned.”
And suddenly it feels like everything in me is splintering.
All this time… I thought I was mourning an accident. A tragedy. A mistake.
But it wasn’t. It never was.
I look at Kai, at that unreadable, too-calm face of his.
He’s known. All along.
And he never told me.
“Is that why you covered it up?” I ask, and I don’t bother softening the edge in my voice. I’m not even sure I could if I tried. The fury is there, burning up my throat, and I let it come.
I look between them. They don’t say anything. Not until it becomes painfully clear that Kai has no intention of answering me.
Christian exhales. “No. Gabriel was forced to.”
At that, Kai’s head turns slowly. His stare slices sideways like a blade, landing hard on Christian. A warning, I realize.
