CHAPTER SEVENTY
The metallic tang of the toxin grew thicker in the narrow tunnel, pressing against their throats like an invisible hand.
The console screen still showed the younger face of Victoria…alive, composed, and triumphant in a body that looked no older than forty.
The frail father had collapsed behind her, no longer pretending to be the penitent witness from the sunrise dock. The sisters stood frozen, the weight of the latest revelation crushing the fragile unity they had tried to rebuild.
Elena felt the words burn through her like the toxin itself. Her own sense of betrayal…the quiet unease that had begun at the golden sunrise, the deleted histories she had discovered, the forged signatures, the planted locket…had not been instinct or love protecting her family.
It had been
