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Chapter 11 - Makayla

The fire crackled softly, filling the silence between me and Lilac. But my mind wasn’t in the room anymore. It was stuck on the phone call, on the sharp edge of Reese’s concern, on the way she’d immediately pieced together that something wasn’t right. She always had been the most intuitive one in the family. I leaned back against the couch, staring at the ceiling as I replayed every word. “Thank you for calling Bob’s Crematorium and Barbecue Pit! You kill ‘em, we grill ‘em! How can I help?” Reese’s Bostonian accent greeted me. I forgot that she gets a kick out of answering unknown numbers in weird and crazy ways. That is just another reason she’s my favorite girl cousin. Any other time, I’d have gone along with the joke. However, I had to be selective in what I did and didn’t say with Lilac sitting beside me. I’m trying to keep her as far away from this situation as possible. She was kind enough to save my life. The least I could do was keep her out of this mess with Stacey.

Chapter 12 - Lilac

I shuffled the deck of cards in my hands, feeling the worn edges glide smoothly between my fingers. The fire crackled behind me, casting a warm glow across the room, but I barely noticed. I focused on Makayla, watching me with cautious curiosity from the other side of the small coffee table. “All right,” I said, setting the deck down. “We’re not just playing Go Fish. We’re playing Go Fish… and Tell.” Makayla raised an eyebrow. “And that’s different how?” I smirked, leaning forward slightly. “Simple. Whenever you ask for a card, you must ask a personal or fun question. If I have the card, I answer. If I don’t, you ‘Go Fish,’ and answer your question instead.” She tilted her head, considering. “So, it’s like truth or dare, but just truth and fishing?” “Pretty much.” I grinned. “Oh, and if you get a full set of four cards, you can ask a wild card question. Anything you want.” Her lips twitched like she wanted to smile but was holding back. “And let me guess—you’re going to ask quest

Chapter 13 - Makayla

I shut the bedroom door behind me with a quiet click, pressing my back against the wood as I exhaled sharply. My lungs felt too tight, like I couldn’t quite get enough air like the walls of this damn cabin were finally closing in around me. Lilac Ray. Lilac Sherbourn—except, no. She wasn’t a Sherbourn. She was a Ray. Why? I rubbed my hands over my face, forcing myself to breathe slowly and evenly. I had been thrown into impossible situations before. Hell, I lived in impossible situations, but this? This was the universe laughing in my face. Lilac was Stacey’s sister. Stacey. The woman I had spent the last several months meticulously gathering evidence against. The woman I had once loved, trusted, defended—only to discover she was capable of things I couldn’t ignore. The woman who had looked me in the eye and lied so convincingly that I’d doubted myself for weeks before I finally woke up to the truth. And now, her little sister had been the one to pull me from the wreckage. The w

Chapter 14 - Lilac

I sat frozen, my fingers tracing the edge of the worn photo album in my lap, my heartbeat steady but heavy. Across from me, Makayla stood stiffly, her arms crossed tightly as if physically holding herself together. Her breaths were slow and controlled, but I could see the conflict raging beneath the surface—see how her fingers twitched and her jaw flexed like she was trying to bite back the storm of emotions inside her. She was unraveling, and I didn’t blame her. I had spent years untangling myself from the damage Stacey had done, from the betrayal of realizing my sister had erased me, erased our father, and rewritten our entire existence to suit the perfect, untouchable image she wanted to project. Makayla was just now discovering that the woman she had once trusted, maybe even loved, had been playing God with her own history. She let out a sharp, bitter breath, shaking her head. “This…” she exhaled, voice shaking before she forced control back into it. “This doesn’t make sense.”

Chapter - 15 Makayla

I needed air. Not that it would help—trapped inside this cabin, buried under who knows how many feet of snow with no escape in sight—but I needed something. Space. Distance. A way to clear the suffocating pressure building in my chest. But there was nowhere to go. The cabin walls felt smaller than before, and the flickering firelight was too warm and still. I sat rigidly on the couch, my pulse a slow, heavy drum in my ears, and my fingers curled into the thick fabric of my sweatpants. I had spent the last few months digging into every skeleton in Stacey’s closet, unearthing corruption, lies, and betrayals. I had prepared myself for the worst—backroom deals, criminal connections, and the skeletons I knew she had carefully hidden. But I never expected to find out she was the skeleton. The perfectly polished politician. The daughter of a man I’d shaken hands with at campaign dinners. The woman who had spoken about her father with such certainty, such ease. All that to find out by co

Chapter 16 - Lilac

Pockets let out a soft whine, curling against my leg as I sat motionless on the couch, staring at the closed bedroom door. The cabin was too quiet, and the air felt thick with the weight of everything that had just happened. I had meant to distract her, not throw her deeper into the storm raging in her mind. I exhaled slowly, raking a hand through my curls. Damn it. I had been so careful, trying not to add more to the tangled mess of emotions Makayla was already battling. But then she’d asked that question, and what was I supposed to do? Lie to her? No. Stacey had done enough of that. Still, that didn’t make it hurt any less. Makayla looked gutted, like I had reached inside her chest and ripped something vital out of her. And maybe, in a way, I had. The Stacey she had known, the one she had convinced herself she understood, had been slipping through her fingers since the moment she crashed into my world. But now? Now, she was realizing she had never known her at all. I glanced at

Chapter 17 - Makayla

The moment Lilac’s lips touched mine, my brain short-circuited. I should have stopped her, but I didn’t. I kissed her back, not thinking, just feeling. Her fingers tangled in my hair, tugging, sending me a slow, burning ache. I should have pulled away, but instead, I leaned in, craving the solid realness of her. Her body pressed against mine, soft yet insistent, kissing me like she meant it. Like she wasn’t afraid. And God help me, I needed this. I needed her to anchor me, to pull me from the spiral my life had become. Her lips were softer than I expected, but nothing was soft about how she kissed. She kissed purposefully, like she had decided she wanted this and wasn’t about to hesitate. A small, involuntary sound escaped my throat, and Lilac took that as encouragement. She deepened the kiss, parting her lips just enough to brush her tongue against mine, tasting me, teasing me, setting every nerve ending in my body on fire. My fingers dug into the fabric of her sweater, pulling h

Chapter 18 - Lilac

I didn’t know what I expected when I kissed her. Maybe a slap. A shove. A bitter reminder of who she still technically belonged to. But instead, I got her mouth. Hot. Needy. Honest in a way that words could never be. And when I took her there—slow, aching, deliberate—when I pulled those sounds from her lips and left her trembling under me, I realized something that terrified me more than anything else: it wasn’t just sex. Not for me. Not anymore. I didn’t move right away. I couldn’t. Kneeling between Makayla’s legs, I stared down at her—completely unraveled, stunning, and utterly real. Her rainbow hair fanned out across the old blue sofa like the chaotic halo it was. Her eyes were half-lidded, dazed in that post-release haze that made her look almost ethereal. Her lips were parted, still kiss-swollen and wet, cheeks flushed, freckles dusted across them like constellations I wanted to map with my fingertips. Her chest rose and fell in sharp, uneven breaths, breasts bare and beautifu

Chapter 19 - Makayla

The cold hit me first. A sharp, biting chill dragged me out of sleep as something wet and cold nudged the bare skin of my lower back. I yelped, jerking upright on instinct, only to realize I was completely naked and very much exposed. “Shit! Pockets!” I hissed through chattering teeth. The little menace gave a soft huff, his wet nose twitching as he backed up a step, utterly unbothered by the chaos he’d just caused. Meanwhile, I stumbled off the couch with all the grace of a half-frozen newborn deer, wrapping my arms around myself to trap what little body heat I had left. The blanket we’d fallen asleep under was bunched awkwardly behind me on the sofa, mostly covering Lilac—who stirred at my outburst, her brows furrowing as her lashes fluttered open. “Makayla?” she murmured, her voice low and hoarse from sleep. “What happened?” “The dog assaulted me,” I said through chattering teeth. “With his nose. And also, the fire’s dying, the lamps are out, and these candles are about to com

Chapter 20 - Pockets

The energy in the cabin had changed. Not in a bad way—not like before, when fear clung to the walls, and Makayla’s scent was laced with panic and pain. No, this was different. Softer. Sweeter. Like the calm after the worst storm, the world felt quiet again when the wind stopped screaming. I curled up near the fire, after doing my business in a corner where Lilac had set out old newspapers. It wasn't my puppy pads or actual grass, but beggars cannot be choosers. Just like getting to finish off their bowls of soup wasn't my usual kibble, I was hungry, so I tolerated the liquid meal of human food. By the fireplace had beclme my favorite spot. It was warm there, and the floor smelled faintly of cinnamon from something Lilac had spilled weeks ago. But I wasn’t sleeping. I couldn’t, not really. My ears twitched with every crackle of the firewood and every weight shift on the couch behind me. My two favorite humans were lying there, breathing in sync under the big quilt Lilac liked to st

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