LEIGH
The silence didn't last after Varek's accusations.
It shattered beneath Sola's voice.
"You still have the nerve to stand there pretending you're innocent?" The hatred in her eyes had stopped pretending to be anything else. "You disappear without a word, show up in another territory like nothing happened, and now you want people to feel sorry for you?"
I kept my hands at my sides. Kept my voice level. "I never pretended anything."
"No?" She laughed — a hollow, brittle sound. "Then perhaps you'd like to explain to this room why my daughter is dead."
The words hit me somewhere behind the sternum.
My head snapped toward her. "...What?"
"My daughter." Each word fell with deliberate weight. "Died…because of you."
The room erupted. Every brother in Iron Hollow turned from Sola to m
