Carson swallowed hard, his eyes reflecting a deep, painful realization. “No. And after that call, I discovered something Hunter doesn’t even imagine I know,” he said, glancing toward the closed door of the room.

The verdict hadn’t been released yet. But what her father was about to say was going to change everything.

PART 3

Carson was not a man accustomed to apologizing, and he certainly wasn’t a man used to his voice shaking while talking to his own daughter. But in front of Selena, in the quiet auditorium hallway, he had the broken look of a man who finally understood exactly how much he’d missed during those three years of silence.

“I didn’t believe him because the call sounded far too rehearsed,” Carson continued. “Hunter spoke as if he were trying to construct a narrative before I could hear your side of the story.

And then his mother called me later, crying, saying you were out of control.”

Selena froze, staring at him. “Did you go to the apartment?”