WRITER'S POV:
It started with a suitcase.More accurately, it started with Aurora, who never raised her voice—just her expectations.
"She's done," Aurora said over breakfast, stirring tea like it was a sacrificial potion. "I'm not watching her slither through another hallway."Cassius didn't argue.Not because he didn't have words, but because he didn't need them.
Ivy stood in the doorway, arms folded, watching as Gina shrieked in the foyer, accusing everyone from the staff to the furniture of betrayal.
"You can't just kick me out!" she yelled.Aurora calmly sipped her tea. "Watch us."
Jason handed her a suitcase with one gloved hand and a smile that didn't reach his eyes. "Do let us know if you forget anything. I'll be happy to burn it.""But I can't live like this."Gina looked to Cassius.
"You're really doing this? For her?"Cassius's voice was quiet, deadly. "I'm doing this because you never knew when to stop."
Gina's mouth twisted. She looked at Ivy, sneering. "You think you've won. But you'll see. He's not a happy ending. He's a storm."Ivy smiled. "I like the rain."The door shut with a final, satisfying click.---
Later that afternoon, Ivy sat in the garden, bare feet on the cool grass, watering can forgotten at her side
Cassius joined her without speaking, sitting beside her in silence.
"She's really gone?" Ivy asked. "She'll haunt another poor soul next," he said.Ivy snorted."Your mother's scarier than you" She added
"She raised me." Cassius muttered with a sigh.
Ivy laughed. And then, quieter: "Does this mean I'm staying?"Cassius turned to her. "Do you want to?"She didn't answerShe just leaned against his shoulderAnd when Aurora passed the garden moments later, she looked over her sunglasses, paused—and gave the smallest, almost imperceptible nod.Approval? MaybeOr acknowledgment that Ivy had outlasted the hurricane.And now, there was nothing left to do but rebuild.