EMMA
The tension didn’t ease after my words.
If anything, it sharpened.
I felt it everywhere—in the way people watched me more closely, in the way Gabriel never let more than three steps separate us, in the way the forest seemed to press nearer to the estate as if it were listening.
Damien didn’t disappear after our confrontation.
He waited.
And when he made his move, he did it carefully. Publicly. Cruelly.
It happened just after dusk, when the snow had begun to fall again, thick and quiet, muffling sound and sight alike. I was crossing the main courtyard with Clara, my breath fogging the air, when shouting erupted near the garage.
Angry. Male. Sharp.
Damien’s voice cut through it all like a blade.
“You touch me again and I’ll own this place by morning!”
I froze.
Gabriel was al
