When he found out which, he would find out he was not going to be reasonable about it. He had already decided that. There would be no courtroom version of this, no measured response, no sitting across a table and being civil.
Whoever had put his wife in the state she was in right now, whoever had taken his daughter out of this world and hidden her somewhere, was going to face a version of Julian Vale that he had never had reason to show anyone before.
He would find Justina. He would bring her home. And then.
Amara shifted in her sleep. A small sound, almost nothing, and her grip on his shirt tightened for just a second before her breathing evened out again.
Julian looked down at her.
Her face in sleep was different from her face awake. The composure that she wore like a second skin, all of it gone. Just her. Just the woman underneath all the strategy and the strength and the armour, trembling even now in her sleep from something she couldn't fight her way out of.
