I didn’t look at her. I only looked at the man with his hand resting casually on her thigh. The man who stood up, startled.

But my voice didn’t shake. It couldn’t.

“You left my daughter outside. In the freezing cold.”

Lydia swallowed, her voice thin. “Michael, you weren’t supposed to come back yet.”

My jaw tightened. My heart didn’t break—it hardened.

This was the moment everything changed.

I kept my coat wrapped around Emily, holding her so tightly I feared I might crush her. The man shifted uncomfortably as I set Emily gently on the sofa, near the fire.

“Get up,” I said to Lydia. “We need to talk.”