Chapter 11 Unraveling The Threads

Sophia stared out the library window, the crescent moon casting silver light across the gardens below. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt so conflicted. The tension in Blackwood Manor was a living, breathing, thing wrapping itself around her chest like an unrelenting weight. Her conversation with Adrian the night before had left her with a glimmer of hope, but it was fragile, like the first layer of ice on a winter pond. The deeper truth—the one she was unwilling to admit even to herself—was that she wanted to believe in Adrian, wanted to believe that he could be the man he claimed to want to become.