CHAPTER 71 — WHEN BLOOD AND TRUTH COLLIDE
The silence after sunset pressed against the Kane mansion like an unseen weight, heavy enough to bend the air itself.
Elena stood beside Adrian in the wide gallery, her posture perfectly composed, her spine straight, her chin lifted just enough to hide the tremor threatening to surface. If anyone were watching closely, they might mistake her stillness for calm. They would be wrong.
Across the polished marble floor, her father remained near the glass wall overlooking the river. City lights reflected against the dark water behind him, blurring his outline until it almost looked as if he were dissolving into the night itself. His hands were clasped loosely behind his back, his shoulders relaxed, his expression untroubled—as though this confrontation were nothing more than a long-overdue conversation rather than the collision of buried truths.
For several seconds, no one spoke.
The quiet stretched.
