ALEXANDER
I watched Roman leave, but my mind wasn’t on him anymore.
It was on what I had seen—and what I couldn’t seem to make sense of, no matter how many times I replayed it.
I turned to my mother.
“Please,” I said, this time more controlled. “Come with me upstairs.”
She didn’t question it.
Not verbally.
But I could see it in her eyes—the curiosity, the quiet calculation as she tried to piece together what had me this unsettled.
Still, she followed.
We moved up the stairs without speaking, the silence between us thick with everything I wasn’t saying yet. I didn’t explain on the way. I needed her to see it first.
Faye was waiting inside.
Exactly where I left her.
Her eyes moved from me to Helen the moment we entered.
There was no surprise there.
I didn’t waste time.
“Show h
