a Quin

Not a call, but a

nly way. I had to protect Isla. It

roy everything I was? I knew then. He had done this. He h

tacted their network of media contacts, lawyers, PR firms. "We will clear your name, Elenora," my

red a statement, my hands shaking as I wrote it.

all. No cameras. No reporters. Just a deafenin

so calm, so collected, looked lost, bewildere

son, grooming him to take over. Greyson, the loyal, adopted son. The one who had saved

jarring sound in the sil

r urgency. "What do you think you're doing? Trying

the phone, tears streaming down

at. "Isla's career, her future... it was a

" My voice cracked.

strange, chilling calmness in his

d in the empty hall, a final, brut

obscured, their movements quick and brutal. They grabbed me, throwing me to the

tain spreading across his pristine white shirt. My mother screamed, a pri

nt of my dying father, my unconscious mother. The very place where I had come to c

must have given them our locat

ng. My mother lay still, her face ashen. I fumbled for my

nspired against me. I dragged my mother's limp body onto my back, my father's last ga

mergency room, my clothes torn, my body

at happens when you don't cooperate. This is the cost of

d through me. "I'll divorce you

ound. "You can try, darling. But

ce. Not then. Not for

d to protect, sent me a video. A video of her and Greyson, in my bed, on the very da

d with a fierce, protective fury. She grabbed a knife from the kitchen, her intention

, tears streaming down my face. "No

sbelief. "Why, Elenora? Why do you let hi

still has her. He threatened to cut off her medical care. He