The Headline

The headline filled the screen in stark block letters: STERLING FAMILY TURNED AWAY FROM COLE ESTATE AMID GRIEF…SECURITY THREATENS TO REMOVE GRIEVING MOTHER. Beneath it, a grainy photo of April pressed against the gate, mouth open mid-scream, her knuckles white around the bars."Dude, what the hell?" Lucas's frown deepened as he scrolled further, finding a second article, then a third, the story already metastasizing across every outlet that could get a camera within a mile of the estate.Damien didn't answer. He was already moving, throwing the blanket aside, his casted leg swinging off the bed before Lucas could so much as set the phone down."Damien…""Tell the doctors to get me crutches." His voice came out rough, urgent, nothing like the careful, controlled tone he usually used in every room he ever walked into. "You've got to take me to the Sterling house. Please, Lucas."Damien pleaded "Your leg just got reset two days ago. You can't put weight on it, the doctor was very clear…"

Burned.

Victor sat across from Lauren on the smaller couch, elbows on his knees, watching the family he'd just driven home fall into a silence too heavy to break with words. Mrs. Sterling's scraped palms were wrapped now, tended to quickly in the kitchen before any of them could think too hard about how she'd gotten the scrapes in the first place. April hadn't moved from her spot on the couch in twenty minutes, knees still drawn to her chest, eyes fixed on nothing.Above them, somewhere on the second floor, Mr. Sterling's medical equipment hummed its same steady rhythm, undisturbed. His night nurse had checked in once, quietly, and Lauren had practically begged her with her eyes to keep whatever she'd overheard from spreading any further than the hallway. The woman had nodded once and disappeared back upstairs, and Lauren had allowed herself exactly three seconds of relief before the next wave of dread set back in.Nobody had eaten…nobody had even suggested it. The idea of food felt obscen

Adrian’s Location.

Ava had admired it too. She'd told him once that Clara was the most honest person in any room because she didn't know how to perform feelings she wasn't having. He had thought at the time that it was a generous description of someone who yelled across the studio floor but he thought about it differently now.He thought about the first time Ava had walked into this studio, years before any of this, before Adrian, before Damien, before all of it. She had been nervous, holding it together so tightly you could see the effort if you knew what to look for. He had seen it. He had hired her anyway, or perhaps because of it.He had never told her that. He wished now, with the particular sharpness of wishes that come too late, that he had.He let himself sit in the quiet a little longer…with the photograph…with what was.He put his hand on the door handle and stopped there for one more second, collecting himself. He thought about the first time Ava had walked into a room he was already in and r

She’s Alive.

The Sterling living room had never felt so small.Damien stood just inside the doorway with his weight on the crutches and his casted leg angled carefully out, and he felt every pair of eyes in the room land on him at once. Mrs. Sterling's wet, searching gaze. Lauren's expression tightening the moment she saw the crutches. April, who had been half-off the couch and went very still. And Mr. Sterling, who had turned his wheelchair toward the door and was looking at Damien with the slow, careful attention of a man who knew something was wrong and was waiting for someone to stop pretending otherwise.The silence stretched. Two seconds. Three.Mr. Sterling was the first to speak, "Where's Ava?"Nobody answered. Lauren opened her mouth but she couldn't say anything. April looked at the floor. Mrs. Sterling's hand tightened around the glass she was still holding.Mr. Sterling's eyes moved around the room and came back to Damien. "And whose body got burnt?" He said it quieter this time. More

All Chapters of The Scorned Wife’s Revenge: Claimed By His Ruthless Uncle: Chapter 91 - Chapter 94

The Headline

Burned.

Adrian’s Location.

She’s Alive.