“Why?” I asked.
“To protect Rosalie,” she answered. “She was just a child. If the truth had come out, she would have been treated as the daughter of traitors, and that would have spoiled her childhood and whole life.” My chest tightened slightly.
“So he lied? He lied and told everyone they died like martyrs?” I asked slowly, and she nodded.
“And you believed it.”
Silence filled the room again, more suffocating and heavy this time. Of course, I believed it. What else was I supposed to believe?
Everything I thought I knew, everything I had built mt decisions on. It suddenly didn't feel as solid as it once did. And Rosalie, the way she had always carried the story, the way I had felt responsible for her——
“Guilt can be a very powerful chain,” Stella said quietly as she looked at me
