Page 56 of Say You're Mine

But she also knows how to plant seeds of doubt, how to spin even the most innocent action into something sinister. And with the court's baleful eye turned on us, the slightest misstep could mean losing everything.

The judge's gavel comes down like a gunshot, jolting me from my spiraling thoughts. "This hearing is adjourned. We will reconvene on June 15th to review the findings of the investigation. Until then, the child is to remain in its mother's care, with supervised visitation for Mr. Deveaux as his doctors see fit."

Supervised visitation. The words land like a blow, driving the air from my lungs. June, my June, treated like a criminal, like a danger to his own flesh and blood...

It's too much. It's all too much.

I'm barely aware of rising from my seat, of Judith and Natalie guiding me out of the courtroom and into the blinding flashbulb glare of the media circus outside. Their questions batter at me like hailstones, but I'm numb, insensate, lost in a haze of grief and rage.

How could this happen? How could I let Elaine blindside me like this, let her wield the broken pieces of my husband's psyche like a weapon against us?

"Cara." Natalie's voice cuts through the fog, low and urgent. "Cara, look at me."

I force my eyes to focus, to meet the fierce, blazing blue of her gaze. "This isn't over," she says, her hands gripping my shoulders like a vice. "Okay? This is just the first round. We're going to fight this, with everything we've got."

"She's right," Judith chimes in, her jaw set with grim determination. "Elaine may have won this battle, but the war's just getting started. And trust me, little sister - that bitch has no idea what she's just unleashed."

I nod mechanically, trying to absorb their words, their conviction. They're right. Of course they're right. I can't let Elaine break me, not now. Not when my child needs me to be strong, to be the mother they deserve.

But God, it's hard. It's so hard, when all I want is to curl up in June's arms and let the world fade away. When all I want is my love, whole and healthy and here, ready to take on the universe by my side.

"Okay," I breathe, squaring my shoulders as I pull back. "Okay. Let's do this. Let's show Elaine Deveaux what the Briers-Deveaux clan is made of."

Judith's answering smile is a thing of beauty, sharp and bright as a blade. "That's my girl," she says again, pride ringing in every syllable. "That's my warrior queen."

As I stand there, my child stirring beneath my heart, my sister-in-arms at my side, I feel a flicker of something long forgotten kindle to life in my chest.

The unshakeable conviction that love will find a way, that good will triumph over evil.

That even in the darkest of nights, dawn is coming.

And when it does...

Elaine Deveaux better watch her fucking back.

Chapter seventeen

June

The news hits me like a sledgehammer to the chest, shattering what little calm I've managed to scrape together. Elaine. That vicious, soulless harpy is trying to take my child. My son. The precious life Cara and I created, the beacon of hope that's kept me clawing my way back to sanity.

"June?" Sarah's voice filters through the red haze of rage clouding my vision. "June, I need you to focus on my voice. Take deep breaths..."

But I can't. I can't breathe, can't think past the thundering of my pulse in my ears, the taste of copper flooding my mouth as I bite down on my tongue to keep from screaming.

"Get out." The words tear from my throat, low and dangerous.

Sarah takes a step back, her eyes wide. "June, please. Let me help-"

"I said get out!" I roar, surging to my feet. The tray of pills on the bedside table goes flying, a rainbow of capsules scattering across the sterile white floor. "Now!"

She flees, the door slamming behind her. Good. I can't bear her sympathy, her careful words and gentle touches. Not now. Not when everything I love is being ripped away, piece by bloody piece.

I pace the confines of my room - my cell - like a caged animal. Five steps. Turn. Five steps back. The walls are closing in, suffocating me with their pristine emptiness. I need... God, I need...

Cara.

But I can't. I'm in shackles, chained by the twisted wreckage of my own mind as much as the locked doors and hawk-eyed wardens. One wrong step, one slip of the mask, and everything we've bled for could detonate in our faces.

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