Chapter 4
Eden and I were still chatting when my phone lit up with a call.
“Julissa… where’s that lipstick I got you for your birthday?”
Landon’s voice sounded tentative, like he already knew he shouldn’t be asking.
I kept my tone calm. “First drawer of the vanity. Why?”
“No reason. Just wondering.”
Before he could hang up, I heard Kendra’s voice faintly in the background.
“I can’t find it, Landon. Can you ask her again?”
My smile faltered.
“Landon,” I said flatly, “you know I hate it when people touch my things.”
Silence.
Then her voice came again, sweet and airy. “Landon, Julissa’s clothes are so pretty!”
And just like that, the line went dead.
A chill crept down my spine.
I ended the night early, thanked Eden, and called a cab straight home.
The second I stepped inside, I smelled it–my perfume.
Familiar, expensive, and completely out of place.
The floor was littered with crushed rose petals, stomped flat and smeared across the hardwood like
someone had thrown a party on my grave.
I sprinted to the bedroom.
My clothes had been dumped across the bed in a chaotic heap.
The vanity was a disaster. Bottles overturned, drawers yanked open. Liquid foundation was still dripping down the side of the dresser, staining the floor like blood.
My heart sank.
I opened the cabinet where I kept the preserved rose my mom had left me.
Shattered.
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Just a pile of broken glass and crushed petals.
I dropped to my knees and scooped the fragments into my hands, desperate to hold onto something -anything–of what she’d left behind.
The glass sliced into my skin, deep and merciless, but I didn’t feel a thing.
And then I saw her.
Kendra.
She stood in the doorway, tears glittering on her lashes, the very image of tragic beauty.
“Julissa, I’m so sorry,” she whispered. “I didn’t mean to knock over the jar…”
I didn’t hear the rest.
Because all I could see–was the dress.
The ivory gown clinging to her body like a second skin.
My dress.
The wedding gown my mother had sewn for me by hand.
17
I charged toward her, fury tearing through me, reaching for the fabric to rip it off her.
But she dropped to her knees before I could touch her, sobbing like a child caught playing dress–up.
“I didn’t mean to cross a line… I just always wondered what it’d feel like to wear something so sacred. I asked Landon–again and again–and he only said yes because I wouldn’t stop crying about it.”
“Please, Julissa… don’t blame him. This was all on me.”
“I didn’t mean to hurt you like this… I swear… I just wanted to feel something beautiful.”
A hard shove hit me from behind.
I stumbled, my head slamming into the corner of the table. Pain flared white–hot across my forehead.
Landon stormed past me without a glance, kneeling beside Kendra and gathering her into his arms like she was made of glass.
His gaze snapped to mine–sharp, cold.
“She’s not well, Julissa! what the hell is wrong with you right now?”
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I could barely breathe through the tears choking me. My voice cracked. “That was my mother’s last gift, Landon. And you just–let her destroy it.”
He blinked. Guilt flickered across his face like a dying flame.
He reached out a hand.
But Kendra clung to his arm.
“Landon… my head hurts… I feel dizzy…”
Whatever guilt had surfaced disappeared in an instant.
He scooped her up like she weighed nothing and carried her into the bedroom.
Didn’t even look back.
My wolf snarled, her voice low and trembling with fury.
“Coward.”
I stood there, watching the door close behind them, fists clenched so tight my nails cut into my
palms. My heart thudded dully in my chest, pain spreading like poison.
The Oblivion Drop isn’t working fast enough…
At some point, I passed out.
When I woke, the room was dim, lit only by the lamp at the nightstand.
Landon sat beside me, his face pinched with worry, gently applying salve to my forehead and bandaging my bleeding hand.
Our eyes met.
His lips parted like he wanted to speak.
But I pulled my hand away.
His expression twisted–confused, uneasy.
“Julissa, wait–just let me explain. Earlier, I was only-”
I cut him off, voice flat and detached. “I’m sorry… who are you?”
