Avery’s breath was trapped in her lungs, a painful, burning knot. She couldn't breathe, couldn't move. The image Clara had painted of Julian’s desperate fingers clinging to the stone, Rose standing over him like a marble angel of death was seared into her mind. The dusty, quiet living room felt airless, suffocating. She leaned forward, her hands gripping the arms of her chair, her knuckles white.“What did she do, Clara?” Avery whispered, the words a raw, ragged plea. “Please. Tell me what she did.”Clara’s eyes were glassy, unfocused, still trapped in that windswept moment on the veranda. Her entire body was trembling, not with the frailness of age, but with the violent aftershocks of a memory too horrific to bear. When she spoke, her voice was a broken, splintered thing, the sound of a soul that had been shattered and crudely pieced back together.“He begged,” she whispered, the words catching on a sob she had held back for ten years. “His voice… it was so young. So scared. ‘Mom, pl
Last Updated : 2025-12-15 Read more