Her lips parted before she could stop herself, the question pressing against her chest. “Earlier… you said they tried to control you, but failed. What did you mean by that, Damien?”
Damien’s jaw tightened. His gaze drifted past Maya, settling on Ashcroft. Their eyes met and held for a long, silent second, heavy with unspoken history—guilt, pain, anger all flickering behind their steady fronts. There was a hesitation there, a glimpse of something usually buried deep, and even in their controlled postures, the tension of tightly coiled unease was unmistakable.
Maya’s eyes flicked from Damien to Ashcroft, noticing the tension coiling between them. Even James and Lee’s faces betrayed unease—something unspoken, heavy.
Her chest tightened, a pang of guilt stabbing at her. She whispered, caref
