Chapter 197

Lauren's POV

I looked down at her, watching the pain etch across her face as she lay on the floor. The way she winced was small, almost pathetic after the force I’d used to flip her. She had asked for it; she’d confessed and smiled about Elena’s death like it was a prize won. The thought of breaking her hand had been a raw kind of justice that pulsed through me — short, hot, and precise. But then I saw the boy.

His eyes were fixed on me, huge and wet now, and he stared as if I were some kind of monster. He didn’t understand. He was too young to grasp how much damage hate could cause, too young to know the history between us. All he could see was his mother, his whole world and I could already imagine the story he would tell himself: the stranger who hurt mummy, the woman who came and scared us. That image dug into me harder than any pain Sophia could have felt.

I let out a small sigh and unclenched my hands. I eased her wrist away from my grip. I c