#Chapter 18: Burn the Pedestal

(Violet’s POV) The moment I stepped through the front door, I knew something was wrong. The air was too still. Too silent. Like the house itself had braced for war. Ronan was seated on the edge of the velvet couch in the parlor, hands clasped between his knees, staring at the floor. His parents sat across from him—Mariah in her usual pearl earrings and polished scowl, Jacob nursing a half-full tumbler of whiskey like it was his last friend on earth. They all looked up when I entered. And suddenly, I wasn’t the wife. The provider. The dutiful daughter-in-law they had once called “the pride of the family.” I was the disgrace. “How dare you,” Mariah hissed before I even opened my mouth. Her voice was clipped. Precise. The sound of knives being drawn. “Mariah—” Ronan tried, but she raised a hand to silence him. “You humiliated this family,” she snapped. “At our king’s banquet. Do you understand what you’ve done?” I stood perfectly still at the threshold, coat still