chapter 35

Abbie Clarice tells me Azalea has kidnapped the orphanage children. Hearing this, I finally leave the room. I want to see the kids, and I want to help. All day I spend building bunk beds and setting up the ballroom, and we change it into a makeshift orphanage, though it is far more glamorous than anything they were accustomed to. My mind keeps wondering if Tyson will be among them. I refuse to have hope. Kade had promised to get him for me, and I now realize it was only ever a way to get me to comply. A false promise, another lie he fed me, and I foolishly believed. What if he isn’t amongst them? What if Mrs. Daley killed him with her cruel punishments? He was just a boy. My sweet boy. I can’t bring myself to ask Gannon. Some part of me doesn’t want Tyson to be used as a weapon against me, another false promise and another way to crush me. I know Gannon is nothing like Kade, yet that fear lingers that I will be blinded by my heart’s desires, which we all now know overrides any logical