Chapter 42 In-laws And Outbursts

• Jade
• We gathered around the breakfast table, and I could feel the tension hanging in the air—so thick I could almost taste it, and it made my skin prickle. Everyone was seated, but no one spoke, and the silence pressed down on me. I was acutely aware of Darius’s hand brushing against mine under the table, his touch a small comfort in this unnerving atmosphere.
• I sat beside him, holding onto that small touch, drawing strength from it as his family’s unreadable faces seemed to study my every move, especially his mother’s. She sat at the head of the table with a regal authority that made my stomach twist.