The Hayes house greeted me with chaos, a wasteland of shattered tables and scattered dishes, as if the apocalypse had swept through. Grace, tear-streaked, swept debris in a tattered gown that had once shimmered at the banquet. Addie sat on the sofa, gaze vacant, hair a tangled mess.
Henry’s wrath had clearly erupted, but he was nowhere in sight.
Their eyes snapped to me as I entered—mother and daughter united in a venomous glare, sharp enough to flay me alive. Addie’s collapse at the banquet, the pills meant for me forced down Henry’s throat—even their dull minds could trace the plot’s twist to me. Yet the shadow of Jax, the Wolf King’s famed warrior, looming in their home sowed doubt. Was I backed by Nate’s power? Fear stayed their hands, their hatred simmering as they watched me surve
