Chapter 176

• In the quiet corridor of Evergreen’s top floor, my mother’s voice tore through the stillness like shattered glass.
• “She wants to be your partner?” she spat, her words echoing off the polished walls. “Tell her to kill that fantasy. If I’m still breathing, she won’t get a single step closer. I will ruin her.”
• I stood motionless, watching the woman who had raised me spiral into fury. Her outrage was familiar an old dance of control disguised as concern but no less exhausting. I had grown up in rooms like this, watching her wield emotion like a weapon.