FAYE
For a long moment the room felt too small for the weight of the choice he'd just thrust at me. I blinked, hearing the blood in my ears. “Me?” I asked, because the idea of spelling out someone’s punishment...deciding the shape of their days, the limit of their freedom...felt like a power I hadn’t earned and a cruelty I didn’t want to wield.
“Yes," he said. “Bella and Maya’s punishment will be whatever you decide.”
Something cold slid through me. He wasn’t bluffing. He had the rare, quiet confidence of a man who meant exactly what he said.
I leaned back and gripped the arms of the chair until my knuckles went white. Thoughts spun, sharp-edged and unruly. I pictured Bella’s smile...the way she’d leaned into every chance to humiliate me...and then I saw Maya, how she had easily playe
