Amara handed the baby to Julian without a word.
Something had shifted in her face, not anger exactly, but the quiet arrival of a decision that had already been made a long time ago. She had made a promise that if the baby was hers, there would be a reckoning. She had not forgotten it. She had simply been waiting for permission from the facts.
The facts were in.
"Remove the restraints," she said to Marcus.
Marcus glanced at Julian briefly, then leaned down and undid the bindings at Yvette's wrists without a word. He stepped back but did not go far.
Yvette stood slowly, rolling her wrists, taking in the room with the eyes of someone recalibrating. Then she looked at Amara, and whatever she saw there did not seem to worry her enough, because she lifted her chin and opened her mouth.
"We both know that the test was manipulated," she said. Her voice was steadier than it had any right to be.
