I think about Hazel keeping that for six years.
"She used it," I say. Not a question.
"Not directly. Not yet." Rossana looks at her hands again. "But she held it. She has always held everything — every piece of information, every leverage point, every thing she learned that other people didn't know she learned. That is how Hazel has always operated. I taught her that." She pauses. "I did not intend to teach her that. But I did."
The room absorbs that.
Cole says nothing. He is looking at the window. His jaw is set in the way it is set when he is feeling something very large very quietly.
"Why," I say. "Why did you keep it from me. All of it. Jason. The letters. The True Alpha bloodline." I hold her gaze. "You had eighteen years, Rossana. Eighteen years to tell me who I was and you chose not to.
Every single day you chose not to. I want to understand why."
