"I saw Adrian kill Seraphina…" she said.
Her voice was a whisper, but somehow it cut through the house like thunder—thin, trembling, yet painfully clear. The words unfurled slowly, like smoke curling from a match that should never have been struck.
The room stilled. Even the walls seemed to recoil.
"…but by mistake."
She felt their shock before she saw it. The silence swelled, thick as heat, pressing against her ribs. No one blinked. No one breathed. Even her own voice sounded foreign, like it came from a version of her who enjoyed playing with fire.
But still she wasn't done.
"I can promise you it wasn't on purpose," she added quickly, desperate-sounding even to her own ears, like someone trying to defend the very man she was accusing. "So he needed someone to replace her."
Her shoulders lifted in a small, helpless shrug—the kind of gesture that made insanity look graceful and too calm for the chaos she'd unleashed.
"So here I am."
