Find me in your labyrinth (Stella and Jonathan) novel Chapter 3419

She knew Carson couldn't have wanted her witnessing his family's dirty laundry.

"There's nothing I need to hide from you," Carson replied, his gaze fixed on the distance. "Regardless of whether our engagement is real or not, I won't keep you in the dark about the Foster family."

Marina's heart skipped a strange, sudden beat.

Her phone began to vibrate incessantly with incoming messages. Carson turned to look at her, the dark storm in his eyes instantly replaced by his usual lazy, charming demeanor. "Got an emergency? I'll drive you back."

"A minor crisis at the office. I need to head over right away," Marina explained.

"Need any help?" Carson asked.

"No, I can handle it." Marina flashed a reassuring smile. "And don't worry about driving me. Stay here with your mother."

Carson gave a curt nod. "I'll have my driver take you."

"Okay."

Settling into the backseat, Marina fired off replies to her work messages before turning her gaze to the passing scenery. Her thoughts involuntarily drifted back to the image of Carson standing outside the study, his eyes heavy with shadows.

The Evert family was drowning in its own toxic dysfunction—the blatant favoritism from her grandparents, her parents' spineless loyalty to them. It all left her feeling exhausted and deeply disappointed.

But despite it all, her parents genuinely loved each other. Even when they were tearing into her, they did it as a united, unbreakable front.

Carson's family, on the other hand, felt far more fractured.

She couldn't fathom what kind of bewitching allure this Rowena possessed. How could Barton discard a woman as remarkable as Miranda, willingly enduring the scorn of his entire family just to play lapdog to a mistress?

Leaning her head against the cool glass, Marina sighed heavily. Every family had its demons. Even these supposedly glamorous, untouchable billionaire dynasties were rotting from the inside out.

Once Marina arrived at the office, she dove straight into putting out fires. By the time she finished, she got trapped in gridlocked weekend traffic. It was already past eleven by the time she pulled into her neighborhood.

She suddenly remembered her grandmother's nagging from that morning—complaining that her late arrivals always set off the dogs in the backyard, waking up precious Phoebe.

"I parked my car all the way out on the street just so I wouldn't set off those damn dogs! How am I supposed to know why they're barking at the wind?"

Rhiannon stared at her daughter in absolute shock.

Her father appeared, his face red with anger. "Marina! How dare you speak to your mother that way? Even if she misunderstood, you could have just explained it calmly!"

Hot tears pricked the corners of Marina's eyes. Suddenly, the fight drained entirely out of her. There was no point in explaining.

She spun on her heel and headed straight back out the door.

"Marina!" Rhiannon shrieked, her whole body trembling with rage as she watched her daughter walk away without a backward glance.

Marina climbed back into her car. She sat in the driver's seat, forcing herself to breathe, but the idea of going back into that house was suffocating.

Starting the engine, she pulled away from the curb, driving aimlessly through the midnight streets of J City.