Catherine watched Joanne for a while longer, her gaze lingering in quiet scrutiny, as though the answer might reveal itself if she simply looked long enough.
This was the baby she had helped raise. She knew that much with certainty.
And yet…
This rebirth… this tangled, unpredictable reshuffling of lives, had never followed logic. It had never cared for reason or order. People who had once been strangers became family, and those who had once held power over her life returned in roles that made no sense at all.
Like Maximilian's brother becoming her brother in this life.
That alone had been strange enough.
But this?
Her mother…
Becoming her grand-niece?
Catherine let out a soft, displeased grunt, her brows knitting together as she leaned back slightly. Whoever was responsible for this… whatever force thought it amusing to twist lives into such absurd patterns, must have had a thoroughly warped mind. There was no other explanation for something so deliberately disorienting.
