The silence in my office was suffocating. Raven’s voice kept echoing. Her words weren’t loud—but they carried weight, heavier than anything I’d ever known.

What if everything I believed was a lie?

I slammed my fist against the wall, the pain grounding me for a moment. But even that couldn’t drown out the doubt.

Could she be telling the truth?

I hated this feeling. The uncertainty. The instability. The possibility that I had misjudged the very foundation of my pain—my family’s death. That I had condemned her mother when maybe she was just a victim too.

But how could I believe her? How could I even allow myself to entertain...