A Widow's Poison, A Wife's Rebellion novel Chapter 889

"Afraid?"

Hearing the word, Yardley felt a flicker of surprise, followed by a dark sense of amusement.

The word 'afraid' simply didn't exist in his vocabulary.

But that amusement lasted only a fraction of a second. Deep down, he realized he actually *was* afraid this time. The Superior... that man was not someone to trifle with. They had all witnessed firsthand what it meant to be outmaneuvered by him in ways no one could predict or defend against.

Before Yardley could formulate a response, Starla pressed on, "And what exactly does Brinley mean to you?"

She knew he trusted Herbert implicitly. But to side with Herbert on the matter of Brinley solely out of trust? Starla found that incredibly hard to swallow.

"What could she possibly mean to me?" Yardley countered.

"Hah. Nothing at all, then?"

"Starla!"

"I must have been out of my mind," Starla whispered, her voice cracking with bitter realization. "I actually thought that by coming back to Yoran, coming back *home*, I'd finally be free of the nightmares from Marina City."

But the reality was that her home brought her even more nightmares. And the worst part was the suffocating darkness—the secrets she wasn't allowed to see or understand.

Her voice dripped with raw, unfiltered disappointment. How long had she even been back? And she was already entirely disillusioned with this family.

Yardley froze.

He realized he had pushed too hard. Especially regarding Garret. Under normal circumstances, punishing a subordinate for going behind his back would be standard protocol. But given that Garret had been Starla's loyal shadow, making an example of him right now naturally bred paranoia and resentment in her.

Yardley let out a heavy sigh. "I was wrong, okay?"

Silence.

"Garret won't be reassigned. If you need anything done, you can still use him."

"No need," Starla replied flatly. Those two words carried the dead weight of absolute despair, the sound of someone completely giving up.

"Starla."

"Susanna wants to leave Yoran. Can you help her?"

Starla didn't say a word. Her eyes were hollow, brimming with pure exhaustion.

"You don't have bad blood with her, do you?" Fairfax asked.

"No bad blood, but we aren't close either," she replied.

If she really had to define it, Susanna had simply refrained from kicking her while she was down when the rest of the Yelchin family despised her. Occasionally, Susanna had even spoken up for her in front of Darleen.

But right now? In Starla's eyes, those minor mercies didn't qualify as a life debt. She had absolutely zero energy to go out of her way for anyone.

"Your brother is a bastard!" Fairfax seethed.

Susanna hadn't told him the real reason she was trapped in Yoran before, but now that he knew Yardley was the one pulling the strings, Fairfax was furious.

"Aren't we all?" Starla murmured, her voice laced with a bone-deep lethargy.