Ella
The world seemed to pause.
“What?” The word slipped out of me before I could stop it.
For a split second, my thoughts spiraled. I had always believed bullies only surrounded themselves with people just like them. Predators didn’t keep lambs as friends. How could someone like Emily—someone whose cruelty had followed her since adolescence—possibly have a victim in her circle?
No.
This was too neat. Too deliberate.
I immediately suspected this was another one of her tricks—an excuse to pull me away from Wane, to isolate me, to control the narrative.
Wane clearly thought the same.
He let out a low, humorless chuckle, his arm tightening slightly around my waist. “You’re telling us one of your friends was assaulted by Jackson Portman?” he said coolly. “Really? That’s hard to believe
