ELLA
The moment Sophie agreed, the air around the table changed.
Not relief—focus.
Willow didn’t smile. She never did when things went her way. She simply folded her hands atop the tablecloth, spine straight, gaze steady, like a general about to map out a battlefield.
“Good,” she said. “Then we’re done circling each other.”
Sophie leaned back, crossing her legs. “So what’s the plan?”
I swallowed. The panic was still there, humming under my skin, but it had sharpened into something else now—urgency. “We can’t just accuse Lily,” I said quickly. “Ace won’t hear it. He’ll defend her.”
Willow’s eyes flicked to me. “Correct.”
Sophie scoffed. “Then what? We wait around while she plays house with his kid?”
“No,” Willow said calmly. “We make Ace afraid.”
The word settled heavily between u
