bChapter /bb43 /b

Until Aria finally looked away, ck Rose realized this car was tinted, one couldn’t see in from the outside, especially at night.

She knew Aria wasn’t going to be easy to deal with.

ck Rose had always trasted her instincts.

She frowned deeper as her gare followed the figur

She thought. That silhouette looks familiar

A ridiculous thought flickered through her mind, and ck Rose gave a cold, mockingugh

beher

She thought. There is no way it could be her!

Watching the car disappear into the distance, ck Rose didn’t linger any longer.

Aria had only dropped Silvia off; she hadn’t even gotten out of the car.

Zoe dialed Silvia’s number for the fourth time, only to be met with the same response–phone off.

Luke couldn’t sit still anymore. He pushed up from the sofa, pacing anxiously, “Silva never turns off bher /bphone. Let’s stop waiting and send people to blook /bfor her.

Zoe stayedposed and nodded. “I’ll call Logan, tell him to leave work early.”

Over the past two years, Silvia had changed. The lively, carefree girl bhad /bgrown reserved, cautious. She no longer asked for gifts in a spoiled, childish way

Zoe could feel it–Silvia was dritting further and further away from them.

The distance was there, etched into their lives, and there was no erasing it all they could do was try

y to soften it.

Heart heavy, Zoe bscrolled /bthrough her contacts.

Just then, Lh Draven came running in, her voice alive with excitement. “Miss Saxon is back!”

Zoe’s head snapped up, joy shing across her face as she hurried toward the entrance. “Silvialb” /b

Seeing her mother waiting for her, Silvia’s beyes /bstung. “Mom… Luke…

One look at her and Luke’s expression darkened. He thought instinctively that someone must have bullied her “What happened, who hurt you?”

Silvia shook her head bquickly/b. “No one.”

Zoe took her chilly hands into her own and turned immédiately to Lh, “Prepare a hot bath”

Lh bnodded /band hurled bupstairs/b.

With that barranged/b, Zoe looked back at Silvia, her voice full of concern. “Where have you been? Why was your phone off?”

“I identally broke it,” Silvia exined quietly/“I went to find bAria/b. She drove me back.”

Zoe from, her emotions bstirring /bviolently, She practically ran outside. “Aria’s home? Why didn’t shee in?”

She craned her neck, searching, but not even ba /bbtrace /bof a cat bremained /b

bSilvia /bcaught the Nicker of disappointment on Zoe’s face band/b, almost instinctively, tightened her grip on her sleeves. b“/bShe’s busy.”

142

wed, 26 May

Zoe sighed softly, the ache in her chest growing.

Luke itched to say something sarcastic, but in the end, swallowed it down.

He thought grimly, ‘Even living away from home, Aria’s been feeding off the Saxon family all these years. What’s there to worry about?

b‘/bSilvia’s the one who trily deserves our concern–taking every blow in silence, unable to fight back.

“She was just a baby back then, Why should she bear the burden of others‘ mistakes?.

“If we’d found out sooner that Silvia and Logan weren’t blood rtives, I would’ve imed her as my daughter without a second thought… but it was btoo /b

His chest tightened. He looked at Silvia, that “almost daughter he had no fate with—band /bstiffened. “Silvia, your right ear is that blood?”

His sharp voice jerked Zoe back to herself

She turned, eyes wide, and caught sight of the faint cut on Silvia’s earlobe.”What happened? Call a doctor, now!”

Zoe hadn’t always been a stay–at–home mother. She’d had ba /bsessful career once, leaving Silvia in the care of two well paid nannies

bOne /bday, on her rare day off, Zoe had taken her daughter out for vinations,

During the injection, two–year–old Silvia had silently wept, too terrified to even make ba /bsound.

It hadn’t felt right. Zoe checked the surveince tapes and uncovered the nightmare: Silvia had been abused bby /bher nannies.

Logan and Zoo were bfurious/bb, /bguilt–ridden.

Zoe quit her job on

the spot to raise Silvia hersel

But no matter what they did, they could never break Silvia’s habit of crying without making a sound.

From that day forwardb, /bSilvia had be the center of their world.

Luke’s face hardened with cold fury. “You went to find Aria and came back injured? Did she bully you again?”

His voice sharpened, “She doesn’t want toe home, fine! She’s in adult, even been married–what, is she going to starve out there?”

Silvia blurted, “It has nothing to do with her!”

Luke stared at his nieceb, /bbhis /bheart filled with frustration. “You’re just too kind, Silvia.”

Watching everyone fuss around her, Silvia felt oddly detached.

There was all this chaos over a cut so small it was barely visible.

Her mind drifted to the scars crisscrossing Aria’s body!

Her lips parted, but she couldn’t form the words

She wondered, “Will Aria really want those old wounds exposed? Won’t the Saxon family’s kindness just feel like pity to herb?/b”

In the end, Silviacked the courage to say anything