I held her gaze. Before Mila left Blackwood, Darren had been nothing more than another executive at my father’s company. A name attached to meetings and quarterly reports I never paid much attention to.
That changed the night she finally told me what she’d seen.
We had barely begun clawing our way back from months of tearing each other apart when she finally told me.
I could still see the moment clearly. Mila sitting across from me on that blanket, her hands twisting together so tightly her knuckles had turned white.
She’d made me promise first. Not to keep secrets. To stay calm. To protect her and her mother. That alone had told me whatever came next was going to change everything.
When she explained what’d happened the night she’d gone to meet her mom at work over a year ago, the words came slowly, pulled from her one piece at a time until the truth finally landedbetween us. Darren Langley lying on the pavement. The vice president of my father’s company.
Mila hadn’t seen the shot fired. But her mother had seen Lorne standing over Darren with a gun in his hand.
Even now the memory sat heavy in my chest. That had been the moment the foundation beneath my life cracked open. Not just for my family, but what it meant for Mila, and how it led to her leaving me.
She’d carried that alone for more than a year, believing the people responsible might come after her and her mom next, believing the only way to survive was to disappear without a word. Even from me—the one person she should’ve been able to trust.
And still… she had chosen to tell me what she knew of Darren. Despite everything her mother believed about my family. Despite every reason that she had to run the other direction from me. She’d looked at me that night with fear sitting just beneath the surface and decided to trust me anyway.
That choice had never stopped meaning something. It wasn’t Darren. I finally understood what she’d been carrying alone all that time.
Something about that night had never left me. “If Lorne killed Darren to keep whatever he uncovered quiet,” I continued, “then whoever else was involved won’t stop protecting themselves now.”
We both understood what that meant. Whatever Darren had stumbled onto inside King Enterprises hadn’t disappeared with him. If anything, it was just starting to surface.
“Then why does it sound as if you’re preparing yourself for something else?” she asked.
Mila had always been good at hearing the parts of conversations people didn’t say out loud. I exhaled slowly. “Sometimes the truth doesn’t just expose guilt.”
Her hand squeezed mine.
“Sometimes it destroys people who were already broken long before any of this started.”
The only sound in the parking lot came from the faint hum of the building behind us.
Mila shifted closer, her shoulder pressing gently against mine.
“You’re worried about your brother?”
“I understand him.”
“That’s not the same thing.”
“No,” I admitted. “It isn’t.”
She tilted her head slightly. “You’ve always defended him.”
“I never defended him,” I corrected. “I just know what it’s like to be in his head. To feel as if nothing you ever do measures up unless you take it.”
“Is there a difference?”
“Yes.”
I turned toward her fully now. “Defending someone means believing they’re right.”
“And understanding them?”
“Means recognizing how they got where they are.”