​🔹 THORNE
​"Smile," she all but ordered when she glanced at me, before turning back to stir the pot of soup.
​I sighed, knowing I had entered hell the moment I promised to play along for the kids' sake. It made sense now why he had approached me a few days ago, proposing to make Althea fall in love with me. I still had my qualms about this plan, but Umbra was content with anything as long as he got to be close to her.
​It was two against one, and I was the loser. So I obliged her—my lips twitching up.
​She glanced back at me to make sure I had done as she asked—then winced. "You look constipated."
​I bit my tongue against a retort, grateful that no one else was here to hear that. I tried again, loosening my jaw and softening the line of my mouth. Her expression remained unimpressed.
