Silence fell. My breath caught. Gavin stiffened beside Avery, but it was Avery’s reaction that made my blood boil. Her face twisted in irritation as she crouched down to Mavin’s level.
"Ofelia left you," she said sweetly, but her voice dripped with venom. "She didn’t love you enough to stay."
My body shook with rage. My nails dug into my palms so hard I almost broke skin. How dare she? How dare she lie to him?
Mavin’s lip trembled. "No!" he shouted, his small hands balling into fists. "Mommy wouldn’t leave me!"
Tears welled in my eyes. He was fighting for me. Even when the world told him I was gone, he still believed in me.
Zach’s hand landed on my arm, grounding me. "Not yet," he whispered. "We wait."
But my patience was gone. My pain, my grief, my rage—it was all boiling over.
They thought they had won. They thought I was gone.
But they were wrong. And tonight, they would know the truth.