CHAPTER 92

I didn’t cry.

Not as I walked out of that hospital room. Not as I passed nurses in pink scrubs and parents wheeling children around in wagons decorated with balloons. Not even when I got into the car and slammed the door so hard it rattled the frame.

But the second I turned the key in the ignition, my hands began to shake.

She did it.

Kiara.

My best friend.

She handed Elora over like she was nothing more than a problem to be solved. For money. For desperation. For Emma.

I rested my forehead against the steering wheel and let out a long, bitter exhale. My chest ached in a way I couldn’t explain. Betrayal like this didn’t feel sharp anymore. It felt dull. Numb. Heavy.

I could almost hear her voice again—“If you were a mother, you’d understand.”

That was the part that cracked me wide open.

Because I would’ve been. Once.

And if my child were alive, would I have done the same?

No. No, I wouldn’t.

Because saving someone you love shouldn’t come at the cost of destroying someone else’s.

I put