AH! I think my eyes actually popped out of my head as I read that. It wasn't really confused by anything, I just didn't believe what was written for a moment so I had to re-read.
But WOW... I sooooooooo did not even see that coming. And now I feel sorry for Carl even more! Ugg, poor girl.
And I think the chapter went along rather smoothly, so you don't need to worry about that. ;) I rated as 'exciting' simply because of the shock value in this last bit but I was very close to 'moving' because there were just so many different emotions from the characters. I loved it as always!
Author's response
I'm glad you weren't confused. I didn't wanna ruin the "surprise" by dropping too many hints.
Thank you ever so much. :)