Kade's eyes narrowed, just enough for her to feel the shift in the room.
"Don't look at me like that," Dakota said quickly, lifting her gaze again, an edge sharpening her tone. "I'm not asking because of him. I just… need to understand."
A quiet beat passed between them.
The air thickened, as if the walls themselves were listening.
"He's in a coma," Kade replied, voice flat and controlled. "She did it while he was unconscious. No one knows. Not yet."
Silence fell, heavier this time, dense with the weight of choices made in secret and the consequences now rippling outward like cracks in glass.
Dakota leaned back slowly against the couch, her mind finally catching up to what he was telling her. What it found did not sit right.
Her sister—alone, decisive, ruthless in a way Dakota had never imagined.
Something cold moved through her chest.
Not judgment. Not outright anger.
Something quieter, deeper.
A recognition, perhaps, of how thoroughly everything had fractured.
