Evelyn’s POV
The Blackwood mansion was too quiet. Too still. The kind of silence that didn’t soothe but scraped against the nerves, leaving her raw and restless. Evelyn Carter moved through the wide corridors with her arms wrapped around herself, the echo of her footsteps making her feel more like a trespasser than a guest.
It had been days since the headlines broke. Days since the tabloids splashed Vanessa’s face across glossy covers, declaring Damian Blackwood’s “pregnant lover” as if it were fact, as if Evelyn didn’t exist at all. She hadn’t dared leave the estate since then. She could only imagine what the city outside was saying, how the whispers would multiply if she stepped out in public.
Inside, the whispers were quieter but sharper. The mansion staff had their opinions, Evelyn
