Scarlett POV
Resting was just an excuse. I was really hiding from the suffocating weight of expectations, from the sharp glances that sliced through me like silver blades, and most of all, from the man whose heart I'd never truly touched.
I slipped into one of the guest rooms on the lower floors, where the air smelled faintly of unused linen and faint pine from the private gardens below. No one would bother me here. The moment the door clicked shut behind me, the dam broke. I flopped onto the plush sofa, burying my face in a throw pillow that did nothing to muffle the curses I muttered under my breath. "Damn you, Jaxen Hale. And damn Liliana for playing the fragile damsel so perfectly." My voice cracked, raw with the humiliation that still burned in my chest like an untreated mate bond w
