A Widow's Poison, A Wife's Rebellion novel Chapter 640

Fairfax stared down at Darleen with glacial eyes, offering absolute silence.

"Why did you even look into this?" Darleen pleaded, her voice cracking. "I don't understand, why would you..."

When Brinley had screamed those accusations at her, Darleen had fiercely denied being the architect of the family's ruin. But now... holding the damning paperwork, she felt every ounce of strength drain from her bones.

She couldn't process this reality. She refused to accept that she was the ultimate villain.

"Why?" Fairfax echoed, a dark, humorless scoff escaping his lips.

Darleen waited, terrified.

"I needed to know why she was being so ruthless. Didn't I?"

Darleen's breath hitched.

Her heart dropped into an abyss. That was it, wasn't it? Why was Starla so merciless? They had spent weeks agonizing over that exact question. And now they had the horrific answer. It all stemmed from her.

She was the poison that had killed the Yelchin family. She was the monster.

Watching all the blood rush out of Darleen's face, Fairfax realized he had nothing left to say to her. He turned his back, radiating an untouchable, freezing aura.

"Fairfax..." Darleen choked out, instinctively reaching for his coat.

But Fairfax didn't flinch. He walked away as if he hadn't heard her, his broad shoulders cutting a solitary, desolate figure in the snow.

Xenia walked over stiffly and stood behind her mother. "Mom..."

Sensing her mother's psychological collapse, Xenia immediately fed her the rationalization they both desperately needed. "Have you forgotten? In the very beginning, this was entirely about Brinley!"

Darleen stared at her.

"It started because Brinley tried to seduce Fairfax, because Harriet tried to destroy her, and because Brinley killed her baby!" Xenia insisted vehemently. "If we made a mistake, our only crime was protecting Brinley when this all started."

Hearing Xenia frame it this way, Darleen latched onto the logic like a drowning woman to a life raft. Yes, everything had originally started because of Brinley. Starla's discovery of the murder was just a sudden escalation.

"If we hadn't protected Brinley so fiercely, if we hadn't taken her side..." Xenia continued, "even when Starla found out about the past, she wouldn't have been this brutal to you! The only person to blame is Brinley. She manipulated us. She completely brainwashed us!"

"Yes!" Darleen gasped, the relief washing over her. "It's Brinley's fault! She tricked us! She put on such a pathetic, innocent act! If I hadn't treated Starla so terribly because of Brinley's lies, none of this would have happened!"

By twisting the narrative, a fresh, vitriolic hatred for Brinley flooded Darleen's chest, successfully washing away the crushing guilt she felt toward the Yelchin family.