CHAPTER 70 — THE CALM BEFORE HE STEPS INTO THE FIRE
Dawn arrived without mercy.
The sky above the Kane estate was pale and colorless, stretched thin like a breath held for too long. There was no warmth in the light filtering through the clouds—only an uneasy stillness, the kind that came before something irreversible. Elena stood alone on the balcony, her hands resting on the cold railing, her shawl barely shielding her from the chill that seeped into her bones.
She hadn't slept.
Every time her eyes closed, the same truth returned, sharp and unforgiving.
Her father was alive.
Not lost. Not dead. Not a memory sealed away by grief.
Alive—and dangerous.
The man she had mourned, defended, and remembered as gentle had been standing behind the shadows of her life all along, pulling strings, shaping events, watching her from a distance like a chess piece he still believed he owned.
The glass door behind her slid open softly.
She didn't turn.
