The moment Thomas Winters finished reading the headlines, his jaw clenched, and a dark fury settled in his icy blue eyes.

Kate, sitting across from him, fidgeted with her phone, her fingers gripping the screen so tightly her knuckles had turned white.

Neither of them spoke for a moment, the weight of what had just happened settling over them like a heavy storm cloud.

Kate exhaled sharply, tossing her phone onto the table. “How the hell did this happen?”

Thomas’s face remained unreadable, ...