Elissa knew there was no escaping this. Her fingertips traced slow, nervous circles in her palm as she spoke in a soft, careful voice.


    “Yeah, he’s been busy with worktely. But he said he’d try toe by once things settle down.”


    A coldugh cut through the room.


    Matriarch Paige Murphy looked at her, her smile edged with contempt. “Busy with work, or busy with someone else?”


    Elissa lowered her eyes. “Grandma…”


    “If you can’t keep your husband’s heart, then just admit it.”


    In front of everyone, Matriarch Paige Murphy didn’t hesitate to shame her, her words dripping with disdain. “And yet you’re online defending the other woman? Elissa, do you have any idea how awful the rumors are out there?”


    She didn’t. But even Rowan–who’d made it clear he wanted nothing to do with her–had warned her that night. So they must be bad.


    “People are saying the Murphy family’s been cruel to you. That’s the only reason you’re still hanging on in the Atwater household, taking whatever scraps they throw you.”


    Matriarch Paige Murphy jabbed a finger at her face. “Tell me who in the Murphy family ever treated you badly? And now, because of you, we have to wear this shame?”


    Elissa didn’t flinch. She just stared at the marble floor, waiting for it to end.


    Finally, themand came: “Get out and kneel in the yard!”


    No one in the Murphy family looked surprised. The snow outside hadn’t let up, but that didn’t matter.


    A few people nced at Rowan, expecting him to intervene. After all, he


    12.14 #


    had practically raised Elissa. Even if they’d fallen out in recent years, surely there was some feeling left.


    But Rowan barely seemed to notice. He lounged on the sofa, idly scrolling through his phone, never once looking up–as if Elissa were a stranger.


    “Grandma…”


    It was te, always the troublemaker, who spoke up. “It’s still snowing hard out there. Elissa’s just a girl–she’ll get sick if she stays out too long.”


    If her legs got messed up, he’d lose his fun, wouldn’t he?


    Matriarch Paige Murphy’s frustration was obvious. “You still haven’t learned your lesson with her, have you?”


    Elissa never expected to escape the punishment. While te and Matriarch Paige Murphy argued, she quietly made her way to the gravel path outside, knelt down with practiced ease.


    Matriarch Paige Murphy watched her through the floor–to–ceiling windows, her gaze dark. “Stubborn as ever. Just like her parents.”


    “Are we going to eat or what?”


    Rowan spun his phone absently a hint of a smirk on his lips. “Is that what these family dinners are for now? So we can all watch yourtest show of cruelty?”


    He didn’t have to name names; everyone knew who he meant. The living room fell silent, tension thick in the air–no one wanted to get caught in the crossfire.


    Embarrassed in front of the younger generation, Matriarch Paige Murphy struggled to control her temper. “You don’t have toe at all!”


    After all these years, he’d hardly ever bothered to show up. No one expected him to just appear tonight.


    Rowan grinned. “If I don’t show up, how else am I supposed to learn?”


    12:14 #


    He nced atn, who stood quietly by the side, always ready to serve. “Take notes,n. You and Evan Murphy have a long way to go before you reach Matriarch Paige Murphy’s level.”


    Everyone except Matriarch Paige Murphy had to stifle augh. This was why people feared Rowan: he was cold, sharp, rumored to have once thrown someone overboard in the middle of the ocean. Ruthless didn’t


    begin to cover it.


    Matriarch Paige Murphy’s chest heaved with anger. “Rowan, have <i>you </i>no respect for your elders-”


    He cut her off. “So, no dinner?”


    Unhurried, Rowan rose to his feet, smoothing the front of his perfectly crisp suit. “Then I’m leaving.”


    Without waiting for a response, he shoved his hands in his pockets and strolled out, as if her outrage were nothing.


    The snow wasing down hard.


    Elissa knelt beneath the streemp. Before long, frost gathered on her eyshes. Her knees and shins burned with pain, but she could handle it. She’d knelt for days at a time before. If not for the years she’d spent learning traditional medicine as a child, her legs would have given out long ago.


    So a little while longer was nothing.


    Suddenly, her phone buzzed in her coat pocket–another call from that unknown number. She rejected it, only to see she’d missed a WhatsApp message.


    With her hands stiff from the cold, she fumbled the phone and dropped it onto the stones as she tried to open the message.


    “Elissa, I don’t think I’ll make it in time. I’ll have Ridgee pick you upter.”