My stomach dropped. The world tilted, just slightly.
"No," I whispered. "No, she never said anything."
"I know," he murmured. "That's what confused me too. But when I asked around… it seems he reached out first. She turned him down. More than once. But eventually… she let him in."
My chest squeezed. Too tight. I couldn't breathe for a second.
"Why?" I asked, though I wasn't sure who I was asking—him, her, myself.
Kael let out a slow breath. "When I questioned one of the nurses who was there during her last month… she said your mother begged them not to say anything. That she didn't want to upset you."
I stared at him. The pictures felt like fire in my hands now. Why did my mom let that pathetic bastard in her life again?
"She didn't want to upset me?" I said, my voice thin, cracking. "She let him back in. After everything. After what he did to us. And I—she just—lied?"
