"You could lose your badge, your career. Your name will be destroyed, maybe even prison. Are you insane?"
Caroline let out a soft chuckle, light and detached.
"Crazy? Maybe I am. But love doesn’t need to make sense. This case is over. Don’t bring it up again."
"What about Victor?" her colleague pressed. "You brought him back and let him live under the same roof as the man who killed his parents. He trusts you. He loves you—"
Before the sentence could finish, Caroline’s eyes turned cold.
"Enough," she said sharply. "I have already told you—Karl is not the murderer."
"And if someone must be held accountable, then I’ll take the fall. I’ll pay with my life if I have to."
A beat of silence. Then a sigh.
"I don’t get you at all. There’s evidence. Motive. But you just—"
The voice trailed off in defeat.
"Forget it. Do what you want."
Their footsteps faded down the hallway.
I stumbled back into my room, heart pounding, hands shaking.
The blood-soaked memory of my parents’ death five years ago surged forward—raw and merciless.
Our company crumbled in the aftermath.
Back then, it was Caroline who reached out to me, the one person who didn't turn away.