The mattress groaned under their combined weight as Lina hauled Nelson onto the bed, the sound a dangerous flare in the midnight silence of the house. Every nerve in her body was screaming, but it wasn't the old fear of her father—it was the electric, jagged memory of the first time she had ever laid eyes on the boy now hovering over her.
She remembered that day in the school courtyard with crystal clarity. Nelson had been towering over Isla, his voice a cruel lash as he mocked her, his arrogance radiating off him in waves. Lina hadn't hesitated. She had stepped between them, her chin tilted high, her eyes flashing with a fire that had actually made him pause.
"You think you're so big?" she had spat in his face, her voice dripping with a disdain that had silenced the crowd. "You're nothi
