#Chapter 79: Another Deal Set In Blood

Aurora POV Gianna returns unusually quiet. Not the kind of quiet that means she’s upset. Not even the kind that says she’s thinking. No, this is the kind of quiet that carries weight. It drapes over her shoulders like a funeral shroud, her silence speaking volumes even as she walks into the room and sits down at the edge of the bed like her body can’t hold her upright anymore. I don’t say anything at first. Instead, I just watch her. Her fingers fidget with the fabric of her dress, her gaze fixed somewhere across the room. She looks like she’s trying to piece something together, like the ground has shifted under her and she’s still deciding whether to run or let herself fall into the chasm that has formed before her. “He didn’t touch you, did he?” I ask gently. She jerks her head toward me, startled, and shakes then it. “No. No, nothing like that. I swear.” Relief floods through me, but it’s short-lived because even if that’s not the case, something still happened.