Page 152 of Bound By Crimson
Lyric’s breath caught.
“No… no, that’s not true.”
Mrs. Thornwick smiled sweetly.
“Of course not, dear.”
But the way she sipped her tea after said otherwise.
Silence settled thick in the room.
Lyric could hear her own heartbeat, fast and panicked.
She pushed her chair back. Stood. Her breath was shallow. Her stomach felt tight—not from the baby—but from something deeper. Anger. Embarrassment. Fear.
“Excuse me,” she said, almost choking on the words.
Mrs. Thornwick nodded.
“Do be careful not to stress yourself. We wouldn’t want anything… premature, would we?”
Lyric fled the room before the tears came. She didn’t want Mrs. Thornwick to see them.
She didn’t want to give her the pleasure.
Chapter Fifty-Four
Not Meant to Be Found
She didn’t know when the tears had started. Only that they had soaked the collar of her dress, her throat raw from trying not to sob too loud.
Lyric stood in her bedroom, trembling—hands clenched, heart fractured.
Kai hadn’t come home.
He was supposed to be back. It had been eight days.
Still no answer. No returned calls. Just silence.
And Mrs. Thornwick’s words still echoed like poison:
“Oh, dear. How fun can you possibly be for him right now?”
She turned away from the window and sank heavily onto the edge of the bed, her stomach tight with stress. The room felt colder than usual. Lonelier.
Her gaze drifted across the room—to the wall directly opposite the bed.
The one with the odd, overly patterned wallpaper.
It had always unsettled her. Too loud. Too new compared to the rest of the estate. Like someone had tried too hard to cover something up.
She rose slowly and crossed the room, stopping just short of the wall.
With a sigh, she leaned forward and rested her forehead against it.
Cold. Hard.
But there was something else.
