Chapter 1825:


    Even now, some part of her couldn’t ept that Marsha’s love had never been what she believed it to be. Perhaps it had been real once — but it had never run as deep as La had imagined. In Marsha’s heart, Jaxen had always been the favorite, the one who mattered most.


    “La, I’m sorry,” Marsha said, her voice unsteady but resolved. “This is thest thing I can do for your brother. The Wade family only has a future if he survives.”


    Something inside La shattered. Since even her mother had chosen Jaxen’s side, she understood that she was entirely on her own.


    Jaxen moved toward her and struck her hard across the face. Whatever remained of the bond between them dissolved in that instant. Fear had stripped away everything else, and now they came at each other without restraint. With Marsha actively supporting Jaxen, La began to lose ground.


    Hurley watched the two siblings tear into each other and let out a quiet, weary sigh. It was a wretched thing to witness — family reduced to this.


    Christina stood perfectly still beside him, her expressionposed and cold. Her attention stayed fixed on Zahir. She had been watching him for some time, and she was beginning to understand exactly what he was doing — standing back, waiting to see which child fell so he could position himself as the one worth saving.


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    A thin, humorless smile crossed her lips. She had seen through it. And regardless of whatever mercy Hurley might extend, she had already made up her mind. If even one member of the Wade family walked free, they would spend whatever time remained plotting revenge against the Jones family. Every one of them had moved against her family. She would not be granting any exceptions.


    “I think we’ve seen enough, Dad. Let’s go,” Christina said calmly.


    Hurley nodded. “Agreed.”


    As they turned to leave, Zahir’sposure copsed entirely. “Hurley!” he called out, panic cracking his voice. “You said you would spare someone from my family!”


    “I made no such promise,” Hurley said, pausing without turning around, his tone cial.


    Zahir’s voice rose with desperation. “Then why did you ask me to choose?”


    “I wanted to see who you would pick,” Hurley replied, turning just enough to fix him with a look of open contempt. “And now I know. You chose yourself.”


    “That isn’t true —” Zahir stammered, but the guilt was written inly across his face.


    “You stood there and watched your own children fight while you calcted how to benefit from the oue. You are worse than I gave you credit for,” Hurley said.


    “No — you’ve misread it entirely —” Zahir rushed to exin.


    He wasn’t speaking only to Hurley. He was speaking to Jaxen too, acutely aware that they would soon be sharing the same fate. If Jaxen grasped the truth, Zahir feared what his own son might do to him before any external justice could reach him.


    The siblings stopped. They turned and looked at their father, and the hatred in their eyes was absolute.


    La had told herself that Zahir, at least, was different from Marsha — that he hadn’t taken sides. But the truth was far worse. He had never wanted either of them to survive. He had only ever wanted to survive himself.


    Whatever love she had carried for her parents extinguished in that moment, reced by something cold and consuming. The two siblings turned on Zahir with the single-minded intensity of people who had nothing left to lose.


    Christina took Hurley’s arm, and they walked away together, Zahir’s cries fading behind them. It took a certain kind of person to face a certain kind of reckoning. Zahir had finally met his.


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