Emmett realized his mistake a beat too late.

Wesley supplied the final detail: Callaway had given Lorelei a heavy sedative before her fall from the veranda, and when Emmett found her breathing on the ground, he ordered the staff not to call an ambulance until it was too late.

Rosalie closed her eyes as it settled over her. For twelve years she’d believed her mother died in a sudden fall.

Learning that her father had stood over her and watched her die was a deeper wound than any abuse she’d suffered herself.

“Why did you do it?” she asked him, her voice carrying across the room.

Emmett no longer looked like the untouchable patriarch who’d run her life.