After Cecilia left the detention wing, Norman fell into step just behind her, his briefcase clutched like a shield.

"Could you draft a settlement agreement? I want the court to consider a light sentence for Scorpius."

"Of course," Norman replied with a single, solemn nod.

They slid into the back seat of the sedan, doors thudding shut against the gray afternoon.

Cecilia leaned back, eyelids sliding down as fatigue pooled behind her eyes and darkness swirled, merciful and silent.

Time blurred until her phone shrilled. She jerked awake, nced at the screen, and saw it was the director of the psychiatric hospital calling.

"Hello? What is it?"

"Ms. Smith, the patient named Ste Ross insists on seeing you. How would you like us to proceed?"

Cecilia''s lips curved, the smile cold enough to frost ss.

"Still pretending she''s unstable, is she?"

"She seems far more lucid now-probably dropped the act," the director answered.

"Understood."

She had assumed Ste could keep the charade alive indefinitely. Apparently, the walls of a psychiatric ward were rougher than the fantasy she''d woven for herself.

She tapped the partition. "Driver, to the psychiatric hospital."

Cecilia wanted to look Ste in the eye and take the measure of the damage.

After years of tangled grudges, Ste herself meant little to her now-hardly more than a shadow on the past.

Yet she had not forgotten the harm Ste once orchestrated.

Cassandra had already met her reckoning. Perhaps Ste''s turn hade.

Inside the psychiatric hospital, the air smelled of disinfectant and muted desperation.

Ste sat trembling on a vinyl couch, bandages and bruises mottling every inch of exposed skin. The director and a nurse stood guard, wary and wordless.

"Has Cecilia arrived yet?" Ste asked, voice shaking so hard each syble barely survived the air.

The director offered a measured smile. "Ms. Smith said she is on her way."

The words "Ms. Smith" drifted through the ward like a pebble tossed into still water.

Ste heard the reverence in that single title, and jealousy red so hot it scorched her lungs. She let out

a thin bitterugh. "She

really" thriving now, isn''t she?" she

muttered.  s

Her pupils were dull, unfocused, as though someone had blown out the candle behind them. You thought ying insane would buy you time, a quiet hideaway. Instead, every hour in this ce has been a slow, exquisite torture. Jail might be kinder than this.

The director leaned close to a nurse and spoke under his breath. "So she is faking after all."

The nurse nodded briskly. "Exactly. She never once seemed like a true psych patient."

Footsteps hurried up the corridor. "Director-Ms. Smith has arrived."

"Understood."

Straightening his coat, the director strode off to greet her in person.

Cecilia, after all, was a friend of Zachary-the director''s immediate superior.

Fawning over her was the safest insurance policy he knew.

Outside, he rushed to the sleek sedan that had just rolled to a stop.

Cecilia stepped out, business heels clicking on the concrete. "Where''s Ste Ross

right now?" she asked without wasting a breath.

"In the reception room, waiting for you to decide her fate," the director replied, every syble steeped in deference.

Cecilia offered the barest nod and followed him inside.

The moment she entered, her gaze nailed the sight of Ste huddled in a corner —hair matted, limbs bruised, eyes as empty as broken ss.

Ste, sensing movement, lifted her head.

Across the room, Cecilia stood immacte in a charcoal suit, the picture of lean efficiency and unshakable control.

"C-Ceci-no, Ms. Smith." The words crawled out of Ste''s throat, each one snagging on guilt. She staggered forward, then copsed to her knees before Cecilia''s polished shoes.

"Ms. Smith, I was

wrong-monstrously wrong. Please, don''t leave me here. Send me to prison instead. Let me pay for what

I''ve done." Her plea left her ne

slow, deliberate syble at a time.  s

Cecilia''s face remained a marble mask; not the slightest ripple of sympathy disturbed her expression.fn5efb This update is avable on find[?]ovel/fn5efb

"I thought you were insane. Suddenly cured, are we?" Her tone was cool, almost clinical.

Ste blinked rapidly, head bobbing. "Yes yes, the illness is gone. My memory''s back. You''re Cecilia Smith-my best friend once."

Friend.

Cecilia nearlyughed aloud at the word, the sound caught between incredulity and disdain.