"Whatever you do, don't come to Yoran Country. You're all I have left. You're all I have," Susanna wept in utter despair.
She hadn't originally planned to tell him. But knowing Yardley's sadistic cruelty, she knew he would make sure the devastating news reached Fairfax eventually, baiting him into a trap. She had to warn him first.
"You probably can't stay in Cyrus Sea anymore either," she added.
Yardley was consumed by a blinding rage. Wiping out the Yelchins wouldn't be enough to satisfy him. He would inevitably make a move on Cyrus Sea, and she was terrified he would actually kill Fairfax. She was warning him so he could run.
"Can you... leave Yoran Country right now?" Fairfax's voice was so hollow he barely recognized it himself. He sounded lost, entirely unmoored.
He knew it was a stupid question the second it left his mouth.
How could she possibly leave? Before forcing her back, Yardley hadn't leaked a single word about her family's fate. Now, he was brutally forcing her to face it.
He wanted her trapped under his thumb, wishing for death. Why would he ever let her walk away?
Just as he expected, Susanna fell silent, her low, broken sobs the only answer.
Fairfax closed his eyes tightly. "Is the news... 100% confirmed?"
A tiny, desperate part of him hoped Yardley hadn't been that merciless. Amos had claimed Yardley genuinely cared for Susanna. And no matter how awful the Yelchins were to her, they were still her blood.
But he was wrong. Yardley didn't possess a single shred of family loyalty. Elmer had molded him into a cold, bloodthirsty predator where power and leverage were everything. Trying to appeal to his humanity was a joke. If he knew what love was, he wouldn't have terrified Starla into fleeing Yoran Country in the first place. He wouldn't spare anyone for the sake of sentiment.

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