Chapter 113

SIENNA

The days crawled by with agonizing precision, each second dragging like it had something to prove. Silvio, in his infinite delusion, thought he’d earned something from me. Maybe respect. Maybe affection. Maybe gratitude. Whatever it was, he called it trust. I called it bait.

After my feigned obedience—the rehearsed smiles, the whispered thank-yous that tasted like ash, the hollow complian