"You were running," Daniel continued. "And soone cut off your exits. That frightened you."
Collin’s jaw tightened.
Daniel noticed. He always did.
"You didn’t co back for revenge," Daniel said. "You ca back because you were desperate."
Collin laughed sharply. "You’re wrong."
Daniel nodded. "That’s fine. Desperate n always say that."
Silence returned, heavier now.
Daniel shifted his gaze, deliberately casual. "Let’s talk about Kira."
Collin’s eyes flickered briefly as Daniel spoke those words.
"There it is." Daniel smiled as he leaned casually on the chair, watching Collin’s expression change.
"I did not kill her," Collin snapped, still trying to hide the fact that he orchestrated the entire suicide scene.
"I didn’t say you did," Daniel explained calmly.
"That was the mistake."
Collin froze.
Daniel leaned forward slightly. "You hate being accused of things you didn’t plan," he said. "Which tells sothing important."
Collin’s breathing changed to shallow, controlled.
"You didn’t intend for her to die," Daniel continued. "But she wasn’t supposed to survive either."
The officer had not disclosed that Kira died not from being hanged, but from being hit on the head, which caused her to be brain dead.
"You don’t know that," Collin muttered.
Daniel tilted his head. "You followed the family for months. You studied them. You knew their routines. You knew who mattered."
His eyes hardened. "Kira was collateral."
Collin’s fists clenched.
Daniel pressed on, voice still even. "And now you’re sitting here pretending you’re powerful when all you really are is exposed."
Collin looked up sharply. "You think you scare ?"
"No," Daniel said softly. "I think you scare yourself."
That landed.
Daniel stood, pushing his chair back slowly. "You ca back because you wanted soone to notice you," he said. "And now they have."
He leaned closer, lowering his voice just enough. "But here’s the part you didn’t plan for. Anna coming for you"
Collin swallowed. There was this underlying aning behind his words that made Collin look at Daniel silently.
"You don’t matter to ," Daniel said. "You don’t matter to my wife. And you certainly don’t matter to the family you’re trying to hurt."
Collin’s breath hitched. "You don’t know anything."
"You’re not the villain of this story," Daniel continued. "You’re a footnote."
The silence cracked.
"You don’t know what they did," Collin said suddenly, voice rough. "You don’t know what the Bennetts—"
Daniel straightened. "Ah," he said quietly. "There it is."
Collin realized too late.
Daniel smiled, sharp and controlled. "You just confird motive."
The door opened, and Daniel stepped out without looking back.
***
Outside, Anna stood up instantly. "Did he talk?"
Daniel nodded once. "Enough."
Ethan lifted a brow. "Enough for what?"
Daniel’s gaze shifted briefly to Kathrine before returning to Anna. "Enough to know he isn’t the mastermind."
Anna stiffened. "Then who is?"
Daniel exhaled slowly. "Soone who thought he was easy to discard after being used."
The words settled like lead.
Both Anna and Kathrine frowned, unease creeping in.
"You an..." Anna began hesitantly. "Our parents did that?"
The thought made her chest tighten. They had already known Collin harbored a grudge against their family, but hearing Daniel fra it this way made it far worse.
Kathrine’s anger flared instantly. "That man," she snapped. "He tricked us. All this ti, he was just misleading us."
Her fist clenched, her body turning toward the interrogation room again, fury sharpening her movents.
But Anna spoke before she could move.
"You an to say our parents used him," Anna said slowly, each word deliberate, "and then discarded him by pinning charges on him that were not even his?"
Kathrine froze mid-step.
As the silence fell between them, Daniel t Anna’s eyes, with a quiet acknowledgnt passing between them.
***
"Are you sure you don’t want to take you to the doctor?" Ethan asked as he parked the car in a quiet spot, far removed from the noise and rush of the city.
Kathrine didn’t answer right away. She stared out of the window, her reflection faint against the darkened glass, her thoughts tangled in everything Anna had pieced together from Daniel’s words.
The truth unsettled her more than she wanted to admit.
Used. Discarded. Frad.
Her fingers curled in her lap as she replayed Collin’s voice, the way he had spoken her father’s na, the hatred that had flickered behind his eyes.
"I’m fine," she said finally, though her voice lacked conviction.
Ethan turned slightly toward her, unconvinced. "You almost passed out," he said, recalling the situation in the interrogation room. If he hadn’t stepped inside, Kathrine would have fainted.
She gave a small, distracted shrug. "I just need a mont to think."
Ethan said nothing after that. He stayed where he was, engine off, giving her the silence she clearly needed.
Outside, the city lights felt far away.
"What made you co for ?" Kathrine asked, breaking the silence.
She could feel Ethan’s gaze on her the entire ti, steady and unyielding, as though he was silently checking for wounds she hadn’t voiced.
Ethan didn’t answer right away. Her question made him pause, his thoughts drifting back to the previous night. When Kathrine had told him they had detained Kira’s murderer, he had believed—foolishly, in hindsight—that things had been that simple. The man had surrendered without resistance, without a chase, without blood. It had felt... wrong, but he had brushed the unease aside.
She had gone on to explain how the man refused to speak, how Anna didn’t want to force a confession or resort to harsher thods just yet. Ethan had listened, nodding, telling himself it wasn’t his place to interfere.
But this morning, when Kathrine casually ntioned she was heading to the police station, sothing inside him had tightened.
An instinct. Sharp and relentless.
It told him this wasn’t sothing to ignore.
So he followed it. And that instinct proved right the mont he arrived and found Kathrine alone in the interrogation room—with him.
Ethan finally t her eyes, his jaw tightening. "Because I knew you shouldn’t be here by yourself," he said quietly. "And because the mont you said you were going there alone... I couldn’t shake the feeling that sothing was about to go wrong."
His gaze flicked briefly toward the door, then returned to her. "I wasn’t going to wait and find out."
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