#Chapter 92: Jenny's Meltdown

I found her in the garden. The morning light filtered through the trees in gentle patches, breaking apart over the stone path and scattering gold across the grass. Jenny sat on the edge of the fountain like she had nowhere else to go. She clutched the journal against her chest like it was a weapon and a shield, her knuckles white with pressure. Her eyes were bloodshot and rimmed with violet circles, her cheeks blotchy from crying, and when she looked up at me, there was no hesitation in her glare. No pity, no doubt, only fury. Her whole body radiated it. I had played this moment out in my head more than once over the last few days, imagining what she might say, how I might defend myself. But nothing I had rehearsed prepared me for the weight in her stare or the way my throat closed as I stepped into the clearing. I wanted to speak, to say anything that might bring us back to something resembling civility, but her expression stopped me in my tracks. She didn’t look like someone betr