"I didn't do it," Liora whispered, tears streaming down her face unchecked. "I didn't hurt your mommy. I promise you I didn't."
Nyla frowned, processing this information with a child's logic. "Daddy says you did."
"Daddy's wrong," Liora said, even as she saw Thessian's expression darken with rage at her contradiction. "Someone who looks like me did it. But it wasn't me. I would never hurt anyone. I would never hurt your mommy."
"Liar," Thessian growled, the word barely human.
But Nyla was still looking at Liora with those too-wise eyes, seeing something the adults couldn't or wouldn't see. "You're scared," she observed with innocent accuracy. "I can smell it. Mommy used to say scared people sometimes lie to protect themselves, but sometimes they tell the truth and nobody believes them because everyone expects them to lie."
"Nyla....." Thessian started, clearly wanting to end this conversation.
"Do you miss your mommy?" Nyla asked Liora, ignoring her father's attempt to stop her.
The question caught Liora completely off guard, striking at something vulnerable and raw. "I... yes. I do miss her. Even though she didn't..." She stopped, unsure how to explain to a child that her mother had never really loved her, had never seen her as anything more than a political pawn.
"My mommy said everybody deserves love," Nyla said with the simple wisdom of innocence. "Even bad people. Even scared people. Even people who make mistakes. She said love is what makes us different from the monsters."
Thessian's eyes were glistening with unshed tears now, the grief still raw and overwhelming. He hugged his daughter tighter, as if afraid of losing her too.
"That sounds like something your mommy would say," Liora managed through her tears. "She sounds like she was wonderful and kind."
"She was the best," Nyla said simply, with the absolute certainty of a child who had been loved completely. Then her curiosity returned: "Daddy, can I ask her something?"
"No....." Thessian began, already knowing this wouldn't end well.
But Nyla was already talking, her childish curiosity unstoppable. "Did it hurt? When you killed Mommy? Did she cry? Did she ask for Daddy?"
The questions landed like physical blows, each one tearing open wounds that hadn't even begun to heal.
"I don't know," Liora sobbed, her whole body shaking. "I wasn't there. I wasn't. But I think... I think she was very brave. I think she tried to protect everyone until the very end. And I think..." She looked at Thessian, seeing the devastation in his eyes, the grief that would never fully heal. "I think she loved you both very much. More than anything."
"Of course she did," Nyla said matter-of-factly, as if this was obvious and unquestionable. "She was our Luna. Lunas always love their pack. That's what makes them Luna." She paused, considering something. "Are you going to die?"
"Nyla, that's enough," Thessian said sharply, his control fraying. "We're leaving now."
"But I want to know....."
"Now." The Alpha command was absolute.
Thessian carried his daughter toward the elevator, but just before the doors closed, Nyla called out one last thing:
"I hope you didn't do it! Because if you didn't, then the real bad person is still out there, and that's scary!"
The elevator doors slid shut.
Liora collapsed completely, her entire body shaking with sobs that seemed to come from somewhere deep inside her, from a well of grief and horror she hadn't known existed. That child. That beautiful, innocent child who'd lost her mother and was trying to make sense of something senseless, trying to understand evil with a mind that was still pure and good. And Thessian, who'd held his mate while she died and now had to raise their daughter alone, had to explain to a six-year-old why her mommy wasn't coming home.
The horror of it all crashed over Liora in waves, each one threatening to drown her. She hadn't done this terrible thing. She knew with absolute certainty she hadn't. But someone had. Someone had destroyed that family, had murdered fifty-three people, had ruined countless lives, and torn apart a community. And that someone was still out there, free and unpunished.
I have to prove it, Liora thought with sudden, crystal clarity cutting through the fog of exhaustion and despair. I have to find them. Not just for me. For Nyla. For Thessian. For all the victims who deserve real justice, not just vengeance against a convenient scapegoat.
She pulled herself to her feet with tremendous effort, swaying dangerously but standing upright through sheer willpower.