Colleen's voice cracked and then broke open, all the anger and grief she'd held at bay spilling out in a single, jagged rush.
"How can you protect us?" she demanded, hands trembling. "My sister doesn't even drink, and yet she died because of that unbelievable accident.
She worked herself to death after she found out she was pregnant. The father ran away from his responsibility. She spent months at sea so her daughter could eat, and then they told us it was an accident because she was driving under the influence?
It wasn't an accident. It was murder! And now you, people from the same world that hurt her, tell me you'll keep us safe? How am I supposed to trust that?" Colleen burst out in tears.
Nick had no words. The confident composure he wore vanished; he simply watched, stunned by the rawness of Colleen's grief. Georgia, however, felt every knot of it like a hand on her own chest—this was the same feeling of helpless rage she'd known the night her brother died.
