Yardley could tell that something terrible had happened.
"What is going on?"
"Letting them die would be too easy," Starla continued, her voice trembling with a terrifying calm. "Why should they get off so lightly? They need to suffer…"
She stopped, but the menace in her silence was more potent than any words.
"…a fate worse than death."
She knew Yardley, upon learning the truth about their mother, would want to eliminate them swiftly. But no, that was too merciful. Darleen didn't deserve a quick end. She deserved to be tortured, to have every ounce of her superiority as Mrs. Yelchin stripped away until she was nothing. Then, she could die in agony. The entire Yelchin family would be dragged into a living hell.
"Starla, you don't have to get tangled up with them," Yardley said, hearing the raw emotion in her voice. "Whatever you want done, I'll do it for you."
It was the most comforting thing Starla could have heard, but this time, she couldn't accept his help. This time, she wouldn't listen to her brother.
She closed her eyes. "I was wrong, bro."
Yardley waited.
"They all wanted to drive me out of the Yelchin family. My absence would be their greatest comfort. How could I give them that comfort? How could I grant them their wish? I will make them understand what true terror is."
All they ever wanted was for her to divorce Fairfax and disappear. She couldn't give them that satisfaction. She would give them pain, fear, and a suffocating darkness.

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