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He looked furious, frustrated, and utterly pained.

“Do you have any idea what you took from her?”

Nik’s expression changed. “I do.”

“No, I don’t think you do.” Lachlan’s voice had gone rough. “Her whole life, men decided what she was allowed to know, where she could go, and who she was allowed to be. Marcela stole her fucking identity. Now Isabella finally gets out of that compound, and you decide you’re the one who gets to tell her mother’s family she exists?”

Nik said nothing.

“Her mother died trying to get her free.” Lachlan’s voice broke, and he stopped for a second before forcing the rest out. “If Isabella ever wanted Eliana’s mother to know how her daughter died, she should have been the one sitting across from that woman when she heard it. That was Isabella’s to give her.”

The room blurred behind my tears.

For one terrible second, I wasn’t standing outside Nik’s office anymore.

Mamá sat at the vanity in her bedroom with the locket open across her palm. She touched the tiny picture of her parents the way she always had, carefully, as though too much pressure might somehow hurt the people trapped inside it.

They would love you because you are mine.

She had believed that until the day she died. Now her family knew she was dead, and they knew about me.

I pressed my fingers harder against my mouth to keep quiet.

Inside the office, Nik looked away from Lachlan. When he spoke again, there was no defensiveness left in his voice.

“I know I crossed the line. I wanted certainty before I gave her hope, and when I learned they had spent twenty-five years searching for Eliana, I started thinking about what that family had lost instead of what Isabella still had the right to decide.”

Lachlan didn’t answer.

“They know she exists now. They know she’s Eliana’s daughter. They know Eliana is dead, and now they desperately want to speak to her.” Nik’s voice roughened. “I can’t undo any of that.”

“No,” Lachlan said. “You can’t.”

A broken breath escaped before I could stop it.

Nik’s gaze shot past Lachlan and found me just outside the doorway.

His face paled.

Lachlan caught the change in Nik’s expression and went still. He didn’t turn immediately. He didn’t have to ask who Nik was staring at.

When he finally turned, the devastation on his face almost broke what was left of my heart.

“Isabella.”

He came toward me, one hand already reaching for me.

I stepped back.

The hurt that crossed his face made me want to close the distance again, but I couldn’t. Not yet. If he wrapped his arms around me, I would fall apart, and I needed to understand what had just happened before anyone tried to make it hurt less.

“Please don’t touch me yet.” My voice barely held together.

His hand dropped helplessly to his side.

I’d never seen Lachlan without some idea of what to do next. Now he simply looked lost.

“Lachlan, I know you didn’t do this. I heard you before either of you knew I was there. I know this wasn’t your doing.”