"Dakota is not someone you manipulate," Richard continued, more quietly now, though the bitterness remained. It had settled into his voice the way something settles into a structure that has been standing too long without reinforcement—not visible from the outside, perhaps, but felt by anyone who knew where to press. "She has never been. She is careless, impulsive, driven by instinct rather than duty. Responsibility slides off her as though it has no claim on her at all. Tell me—how do you negotiate through someone who refuses to play by the rules of negotiation? How do you use a daughter who has never once, in her entire life, done what was expected of her?"
No one answered. There was no easy answer, and the men in this room had run out of easy answers hours ago.
