Chapter 25: The backstory

The car ride home was wrapped in silence, and it wasn't the peaceful kind.

The kind that pressed heavy on the skin, like fog soaked in tension. Serena sat rigidly beside Dominic, her arms folded tight against her chest. Her cheek throbbed with dull pain from the slap, the swelling sharp with every thump of her pulse.

She, however, refused to touch it, as she didn't want to appear weak in front of