Tabitha’s POV

I nod slowly, and my thoughts drift back to my mother and the baby she lost. I think about the child who might have been born into that family. Another child who would have carried Emery Aldair’s blood. The idea of a child growing up under a man like that makes my chest tighten, and I swallow the feeling before it can show.

A few minutes of silence ensues after that. Maybe we’re all lost in our own thoughts, maybe they’re bored waiting for a fish to swim into the nets, but no one speaks for a while until I decide to break the silence.

“Can I ask...