The next afternoon the house was quiet and sunlit when Ava walked into the master bedroom without knocking. Claire was reading on the bed in a thin robe. Richard sat in the armchair by the window, shirt sleeves rolled up. Both of them looked up, expecting the same soft, newly obedient version of Ava from the night before. Instead Ava closed the door, locked it, and leaned back against it with a slow, sharp smile. “Clothes off,” she said. “Both of you. Now.” Claire’s eyebrows lifted. “Baby—” “I said now.” Ava’s voice was rougher, lower, nothing like the breathless girl who had come on her adoptive mother’s tongue the night before. “I’m done taking orders.” Something dangerous and interested flickered in Claire’s eyes. She glanced at Richard, then stood and let the robe fall. Richard rose and stripped without a word, already half-hard from the sudden shift in the air. Ava watched them both with open hunger and zero hesitation. She stalked forward, grabbed Claire by the hair, and s
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