Riley’s POV
"You’ve gone mad, Riley. You’re not yourself."
Wendy spoke first. Her voice carried more force than before, but it wasn’t steady. She tried to sound firm, yet the tension in her shoulders and the tightness in her jaw gave her away. Her eyes stayed locked on , searching for sothing familiar, sothing she could still get at.
I nodded once.
"You’re right," I said. There was no hesitation in my voice, no attempt to deny it.
That response unsettled her. I saw it in the way her expression shifted, in the way she adjusted her stance without realizing it.
I didn’t give her ti to recover. I turned to Daphne.
She stood a little behind Wendy, but not enough to stay out of this. Her chin was raised, her posture stiff, holding onto whatever pride she had left. Her eyes t mine directly, but there was sothing under it now. Sothing she was trying to hide.
I stepped closer to her.
"Why would you want your brothers dead Daphne?" I asked.
The question landed hard.
Her reaction was imdiate. Her face tightened, and anger replaced whatever restraint she had been holding onto.
"You don’t get to ask that," she snapped. "You have no right."
Her voice rose, sharper than before.
"After everything you’ve done, you stand there like you’re innocent?" she continued. "Like you’re not the cause of all this?"
I watched her without interrupting.
"You pushed things to this point," she said. "You forced them to make choices they never would have made."
Her breathing picked up slightly as she spoke.
"You made them kill Sapphire over a little deed."
For a brief mont, I just looked at her.
Then I spoke.
"A little deed?" I repeated.
I took another step forward.
"Poisoning Sumr is what you call a little deed now? I wasn’t even here when Gunnar murdered Sapphire was I?" I asked.
Her lips parted, but she didn’t answer imdiately.
"You caused it," I continued. "You worked with Sapphire to poison your own brother’s daughter."
"That’s not how it happened," she said quickly.
Her tone carried urgency now, like she needed to correct the narrative before it settled.
"You don’t understand the situation," she added.
"I understand enough," I replied.
Wendy stepped in at that point, shifting closer to Daphne as if standing together gave her more ground.
"You always twist things to suit yourself," Wendy said. "You act like you’re the only one who has suffered here, like the victim."
I turned my head slightly toward her.
"You weren’t the only one affected," she continued. "You weren’t the only one who had sothing taken from you."
"And that gives you the right to poison a child?" I asked.
She hesitated, just for a second.
"That’s not what this is about," she said.
"It is exactly what this is about you bastard," I replied.
Daphne shook her head, stepping forward again.
"You ca into everything and changed it," she said. "Before you, things were a bit stable."
I looked at her."Stable?" I asked.
"Yes," she said without hesitation. "We knew where we stood. There was order."
"And now there isn’t?" I asked.
"You ruined it," she said. "You’ve forced everyone to turn on each other and took the attention all to yourself."
I let out a slow breath.
"You tried to kill Sumr," I said. "And now you’re blaming because it didn’t work."
"That’s not what I said," she snapped.
"That’s exactly what you’re implying," I replied.
Wendy crossed her arms tightly, stepping in again.
"You think everything is so simple," she said. "You think people just wake up and decide to do things like this for no reason."
I looked at her."Then explain it," I said.
She didn’t. Instead, she continued pushing forward.
"You think you’re better than us," she said. "You stand there acting like you’re above everything that’s happened."
"I never said that," I replied.
"You don’t have to," she said. "It’s in the way you act."
I stepped closer to both of them, closing the distance enough to make it clear that this wasn’t just a conversation anymore.
"You’re both standing here," I said, "trying to shift everything, every bla onto ."
Neither of them responded.
"You made your choices," I continued. "You planned things and you acted on them."
Daphne’s hands tightened at her sides.
"You think we had a choice?" she asked.
"Yes," I said. The answer ca imdiately. "You always had a choice."
She shook her head.
"You don’t know what we were dealing with," she said.
"Then tell ," I replied.
She didn’t.
Wendy looked at again, her expression hardening slightly.
"You’re not yourself," she repeated again. "This isn’t the Riley we knew."
I held her gaze.
"The Riley you knew," I said, "was the one you could control."
Her lips pressed together.
"The one you could lie to," I continued. "The one you thought wouldn’t fight back."
"That’s not true," she said, but there was no strength behind it.
"It is," I replied.
Silence settled again, heavier this ti.
Daphne spoke next, her voice lower but more intense.
"You think this ends well for you?" she asked. "You think you can just do all this and walk away from it?"
I didn’t respond.
"There will be consequences," she added.
I took another step forward. "I’m counting on it," I said.
That answer stopped her.
Wendy exhaled slowly, shaking her head.
"This isn’t justice is it," she said. "This is your revenge."
I didn’t deny it.
"You’re no better than any of us," she continued.
I looked at both of them. "I never said I was," I replied.
That caught them off guard.
Neither of them spoke imdiately after that.
The silence stretched, filled with everything that had already been said and everything they couldn’t say.
I shifted my grip on the knife slightly. Their eyes followed the movent without fail.
Good.
I studied them for a mont.
The tension in their bodies. The way they stood. The way they looked at now.
Then I spoke.
"Since we’re all ladies," I said.
My voice remained calm and asured.
"I think we should make this fair."
Their expressions changed slightly, confusion mixing with caution.
I took a small step back, giving them space without lowering my guard.
"Both of you," I continued as I looked directly at them.
"Team up." The words settled between us. "And fight ."
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