Lahat ng Kabanata ng Rejected and Pregnant I Fled The Pack: Kabanata 71 - Kabanata 80

"I don't know what I'd even say to him, if he did show up," she admitted quietly. "Part of me is grateful for the distance. Part of me still keeps waiting for him to try something, some version of the manipulation he's always used whenever he sensed he was actually losing control of a situation."

"That sounds reasonable," Evelyn said. "Not accusatory, just clear boundaries. That's usually the best way to actually test whether someone's genuinely changing, I think. Clear expectations, and then watching whether they actually respect them." Willow stirred slightly against Evelyn's shoulder, a

"I'm sorry," Marissa said quietly, once I'd handed her the glass, her hands shaking as she took it. "I know I shouldn't have come here. I don't even know why I did, except that I couldn't think of anywhere else. Your mother's kind, and Damon's been kind lately too, and I just—I panicked, and my feet

"That's generous," she said quietly. "More generous than I probably deserve." "Maybe," I admitted. "But you're also the mother of an infant who needs you well enough to actually raise her eventually. Whatever judgment I might still carry about everything that happened, that doesn't change what Haz

"Better today, I think. The nannies are helping enormously, and she actually managed a full night's sleep last night for the first time since Marissa's crisis started." I considered how to phrase the next part carefully. "I talked to my father this afternoon, actually. Set the boundary we discussed,