#Chapter 56: Tribunal

DEREK I sat there for a long time after my mother left, the untouched bacon on the plate cooling beside me, the scent of coffee thick in the air. But it wasn’t breakfast I could taste. It was bitterness. Elena. Her name kept echoing inside my skull like a curse and a prayer at once. I’d betrayed her—again. Or maybe she’d been right all along to keep her distance. I didn’t remember what happened with Cassandra. Not really. And that scared me more than I wanted to admit. My father would have never allowed himself to be caught in a situation like this. But then again, my father had been many things I wasn’t. I stood abruptly and pushed away from the table, my chair scraping hard against the floor. The night’s guilt still clung to my skin, even after a shower, even after the self-loathing had settled in like a second heart, pumping shame through every vein. I needed answers. Something to focus on besides the wreckage I kept leaving behind. Upstairs, in my study, the folder