Something in me finally gives.
I turn fully toward her, right there in the middle of the ballroom, the music low, conversations humming just close enough that I know people are listening.
“You want respectable?” My voice rises before I can stop it. “You want me to stand here and smile like this life didn’t cost me everything?”
Her eyes narrow. “Lower your voice.”
“No.” My hands come up, palms open, my whole body vibrating. “I’m done lowering myself for you.”
Heads are turning now. I feel it, the attention, the tightening circle.
“You keep saying Jace saved me,” I say, loud enough that the nearest tables go quiet. “You keep saying my marriage was the one good decision I ever made.”
My mother’s face goes rigid. “Sierra—”
“I married him because he was safe,” I shout. The word rips out of me. “Because he fit your world. Because the baby I lost—”
The room stills.
My chest heaves. I don’t stop.
“—wasn’t his.” My voice breaks, then hardens. “It wasKnox’s.”
The ballroom goes dead silent.
Because the doors open and Griff and Knox walk in as my words echo off the walls.
Griff freezes just inside the doorway, his face already tight, already braced, his eyes wide.
Knox is half a step behind him.
He hears it all.
He doesn’t ask me to repeat what I said.
He doesn’t need clarification.
His eyes find me, and the understanding hits him like a physical blow.
The room is staring.
At me.
At him.
Knox’s gaze flicks to Griff. Just once.
His brow creases, a flicker of confusion crossing his face—like something doesn’t line up.
I look up, and the room comes rushing back into focus.
Across the ballroom, Jace stands frozen, white as a sheet, his drink slack in his hand like he forgot it was there.
Sarah stands beside him, frozen, one hand clenched tight at her side, her eyes locked on me like the ground just shifted under her feet.
Someone gasps.
Someone whispers my name.
