NEVA POV
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Mara went the color of old paper and didn't say anything.
That was the thing. She didn't deny it. Didn't explain it. Didn't do what a person does when they're wrongly accused — the immediate reflex of *no, wait, that's not—* She just went pale and looked at Mitch's phone and the silence she produced was its own kind of answer.
I looked at her.
I looked at the silence.
"Mara," I said.
She closed her eyes.
"Mara." My voice was very level. I was distantly impressed with myself. "Look at me."
She did.
Her eyes, when they opened, were the same ones I'd known for twenty-two years — the ones that had looked at me across crowded pack gatherings with the warmth of someone who'd chosen me, specifically, to pay attention to. The same eyes that had looked at me last night fright
