“So you really think you get to have it all, Elliana?” Maxine spat, her words venomous. “My entire life has been a string of regrets. I refuse to sit by and let you live out the happiness I never had.”

Her eyes turned glacial and ruthless. “If you refuse to let your daughter stay with me, I’ll have Sophie and her mother killed right now. And as for you, Elliana, you’ll die never learning the truth about your mother.”

Maxine wasn’t someone who bent easily. Once she set her mind to something, a frigid, threatening presence emanated from her—a wordless warning that commanded obedience.

Elliana and Cole locked eyes, a silent conversation passing between them. They both recognized Maxine for what she was: a brutal woman who never made idle threats. If she vowed to execute Cole’s mother and grandmother, she would follow through without hesitation or remorse.

After a moment stretched taut with tension, Cole’s voice emerged in a strained tone. “Where’s my mother? Is she all right? What have you done to her?”

“Your mother turned her back on the Griffiths family,” Maxine declared, her tone devoid of feeling. “According to our laws, she should have faced execution the instant we captured her. But for the sake of the bond she and I once shared, I postponed the sentence. For the time being. She’s imprisoned in the dungeon alongside your grandmother.”

Maxine hesitated, something cruel flickering in her expression. “Her condition deteriorates daily. The Psychephrenia has been eating away at her for years, draining every ounce of vitality from her body. She’s become as gaunt as a dead branch, her face… ruined beyond repair. I suspect she doesn’t have long left. Even if I showed mercy, she’d perish on her own before much time passed.”

Searing pain tore through Cole’s chest. “Bring me to her,” he commanded, his voice scraped raw. “Right now.”

“That can be arranged,” Maxine replied, her tone glacial. “Maybe seeing your mother might make you reconsider. Afterward, you can decide. Will you choose your mother and grant her a peaceful end to whatever days remain? Or will you claim your daughter and abandon your mother to decay in this subterranean prison?”

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With that, Maxine pressed a button and spoke into the intercom. “Escort them to Sophie.”

The words had scarcely left her mouth when the door glided open.

Several guards dressed entirely in black strode inside, their expressions blank. “This way,” one announced, his voice stripped of inflection.

Though anxiety for their daughter gnawed at Elliana and Cole, Sophie’s desperate circumstances took precedence. Hearts laden with dread, they trailed the guards from the room.

Built into the snow-blanketed mountainside, the compound consisted of five levels—two ascending above ground, three descending beneath it—with Sophie imprisoned in the lowest basement.

They descended in the elevator to the deepest level and then wound through a labyrinth of twisting passages before arriving at an imposing black iron door.

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