“I had just been threatened by a man I knew was capable of anything.

I had signed my name to evidence against him.

And now my daughter was telling me she was carrying that same young man’s child, the child of the very person Vale most wanted to destroy.

Every road I could see led somewhere terrible.

If I kept you close, if I protected you openly, I drew Vale’s eye straight to you.

If I told you the truth, about the threat, about my signature, I put the danger in your hands and made you a target twice over.