Chapter 170

• Third person POV
• The mansion was unusually quiet. The kind of stillness that didn’t come from peace, but from pressure—unspoken, unseen, but thick and suffocating. The staff moved like shadows through the halls, their eyes low, their steps softer than usual, as if the very walls of the estate could explode under too much noise.
• Upstairs, in the master bedroom, Meredith Walters sat at her vanity, motionless, her gaze locked on the mirror but seeing nothing. Her reflection stared back at her—older than she remembered, wearier than she felt she had a right to be. Her once-immaculate bun was slightly undone, wisps of hair sticking out at odd angles. The pearls around her neck felt too tight. She couldn’t breathe.