"Jasmine, I need you to tell me exactly what you saw." Gabriel's voice was sharp, slicing through the chaos as we stood in my ransacked living room.
"I—" My throat felt dry. The words wouldn’t form. I stared at the shattered picture frames on the floor, Lily's toys scattered like a war zone. But it wasn’t just the mess that left my chest tight with fear. It was the message smeared in bold, blood-red letters on the living room wall:
Stay silent or suffer.
Lily whimpered, clutching my leg. I knelt down, cupping her tear-streaked face. "It's okay, sweetheart. We're safe." Even as I said it, I knew it was a lie. We weren’t safe.
Gabriel's gaze darkened as he took in the threat. His jaw clenched so tightly I thought it might shatter. "Whoever did this will regret it."
"They were inside my
