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His eyes closed for a moment. When they opened again, the relief I expected wasn’t there.

I stepped fully into the office and turned to Nik, wiping the tears from my cheeks even though more immediately replaced them.

For once, the man who seemed able to find anything, reach anyone, and solve every problem knew there was nothing he could say to put the morning back the way it had been.

“I heard everything you told Lachlan, and I understand why you did it. I know you thought you were protecting me, but I wasn’t even sure I wanted them to know I existed.”

His eyes came back to mine.

“That should have been mine to choose.”

“Yes, you’re right.”

“I have spent my entire life with other people deciding who Isabella was supposed to be. Now, you stole my chance to tell my own story.”

Nik went very still.

“I know you thought you were doing the right thing—helping me, even.” I shook my head. “But knowing why you did it doesn’t change the fact that it was mine to handle.”

“No,” he said quietly. “It doesn’t.”

“My mother died trying to get me free when I was thirteen. She still believed there was a life outside that compound worth fighting for, and I watched her die trying to reach it.” I swallowed hard. “Mamá raised me on stories about her family. She told me they would love me because I was hers. I should’ve been the one to tell them what happened to her. I should have been allowed to decide whether I wanted to tell them everything or nothing. Maybe I would have called them the second you told me they wanted to know me. Maybe I would have been terrified and needed months before I could do it. I don’t know what I would have chosen because you made sure I never got to find out.”

When Nik finally spoke, his voice was quieter than I’d ever heard it.

“You’re right, Isabella. Everything you just said is true.”

He glanced briefly toward Lachlan, then back at me.

“I told myself that if I verified every fact first, I could spare you another lie. I thought if I knew exactly who these people were, what they wanted, and whether they could be trusted, then I could put the truth in front of you without exposing you to another kind of danger.”

His usual certainty was gone.

“I found the information you asked me to find, and then I went beyond that because I believed I knew the safest way to handle it for you.”

He rubbed one hand over his mouth and looked away for a second.

“I am sorry. Not because this has become a problem I need to fix, and not because Lachlan is furious with me. I’m sorry because you trusted me to find answers for you, and I used that trust to make decisions that were never mine.”

I believed him.

That was the awful part.

There was no monster standing in front of me. No cruelty I could point to and hate. Nik had wanted to protect me and had managed to hurt me in a way no one could repair.

“I don’t know what I feel about you right now. I need time.”

“Then take it. I won’t contact them again or tell them anything else about you unless you ask me to.”

“Thank you.”

I turned to Lachlan.

He’d stayed where he was through everything I said to Nik, because he understood that was between Nik and me, but it had cost him to stand there and do nothing.

His eyes were red. A tear had made its way down one cheek and into his beard, and he’d made no attempt to wipe it away.

I crossed over to him and took his hand.