ALEX’S POV
Aunty Tracy’s voice is still echoing in my head when I end the call. She told her to leave, Alex, to disappear. My hand tightens around the phone until my knuckles ache. I know my mother, that’s the most dangerous part.
Laura Robinson doesn’t threaten unless she’s already calculated ten outcomes ahead. She doesn’t raise her voice; she lowers it. She doesn’t strike first; she destabilizes, isolates, suffocates. And she always believes she’s right, because in her world, results justify methods.
Lavender is not equipped for that kind of war. I pace the length of my office, fury burning hot beneath my skin, sharp and focused. Outside the glass walls, the Robinson empire is visibly trembling, assistants rushing, phones ringing, hushed conversations cutting off the moment I pass.
