Jensen's complaints faded as Leo pulled her away, leaving the two of them in uneasy silence.
Kiera's expression remained frosty. "Are you done here?" she asked, her voice chilly. "If not, I'm going inside."
"Kiera," Jacob pleaded, his eyes full of desperation, "can we just talk?"
She studied him silently, a flood of memories rushing back—her mother's final, frenzied collision with the truck, the crimson haze before everything went black. She shut her eyes briefly, swallowing the ache. "No," she said coldly. "The day you betrayed Mom, you lost any right to call yourself my father."
"Kiera!" he stammered. "Jensen was already carrying Leo back then—I couldn't abandon them! I begged your mother, but she... she was so stubborn—"
"So now it's her fault?" Kiera cut him off sharply. "Then we'
