Page 125 of Billionaire’s Ruin

“How?” Lincoln snapped. “You don’t just forget a face. I know you, Kai. What are you not telling me?”

There it was… the interrogation tone.

The one that made June shrink when he wanted answers from her.

Only now I understood why.

“We were kidnapped together when we were kids, okay?” I ground out.

Lincoln’s expression shattered. “No.”

“Yes,” I said, breath shaking despite the anger vibrating in my ribs. “We were taken together. Then we got separated. He promised he’d come back for me—and he did.”

A laugh escaped me, but it tasted like rust.

Bitter.

Broken.

Only it was more than a decade too late. But hey… at least he came back.”

“I’m sorry,” she whispered.

Her hand lifted, hesitated, then fell back to her side, as if she’d touched fire.

Something inside my chest twisted painfully.

“Though,” I continued, voice dipping into something darker, “I’m still not sure if he came back for me… or because of you.”

Her breath hitched.

Lincoln stiffened.

My gaze locked with June’s.

For a moment, the room shrank to the size of that single, electric gaze.

The air thickened.

Charged.

Heavy with all the things we hadn’t said.

All the things she didn’t deny.

And that silence, that small, damning silence, told me more than any confession could.

“That’s not important.”

June cut in before Lincoln or I could say another word.

“The most important thing is that you’re safe. Where’s your mother now?”

“In one of the rooms upstairs.” My answer came out flat.

“Secure?” Lincoln’s tone hardened again. Always hunting threats, even inside four walls.

“You can’t keep her locked up forever,” she murmured, her voice quiet but firm, always the damn voice of reason, even when reason had done nothing but destroy her life.