Chapter 26

Meadow’s POV

I nursed my cup of coffee, my mind spinning, thoughts unraveling faster than I could piece them back together.

Alaric hadn’t come back downstairs since he’d so sternly shut down my request to release Juniper. Like I was a child asking for candy during bedtime.

I scoffed.

I couldn’t stop replaying it—the way he’d said no without any hesitation. As if it was final. As if my opinion didn’t matter. Juniper had made me feel that exact same way more times than I could count.

The truth was, it wasn’t that I didn’t want her to suffer the consequences of her actions. I did. Juniper deserved to be punished for all the vile things that she had done to me over the years.

I just couldn’t stomach the thought of her in that facility. Alone. Scared. Or maybe she wasn’t. Maybe she was exactly where she deserved to be.

But all I could hear was her voice, echoing in the corners of my skull. 

‘It’s all your fault,’ she k