Jessica let out a wounded gasp, stepping back as if someone had struck her. "What are you saying? She is my daughter and I have changed," she insisted, her voice trembling perfectly on cue. "And you're my son-in-law! You cannot treat me like this. Bella, sweetheart, say something—"
But Bella simply stared at her, her expression softening into something distant and vacant, like someone watching rain slide down a windowpane. There was no anger there, no recognition… only a quiet, hollow stillness. It was the emptiness of a door left open to an empty room.
That emptiness frightened Leo more than any of Jessica's manipulative games. Bella had always tried to find goodness in people. He would not let those old wounds be reopened. If Jessica wanted to pretend, then he would end the charade completely.
He stepped forward, the air around him shifting, growing colder and sharper, like a predator finally emerging from the shadows.
