Recap
Across town, Mercy sat silently in the back seat of a cab, her fingers fidgeting with the hem of her sleeve. The walls of false confidence she usually carried had crumbled. Benjamin had said it clearly:
Your turn is coming, Mercy."
She tried to rationalize it, tried to tell herself he was bluffing, that he wouldn't hurt family. But she knew her cousin better than anyone. And this wasn't the Benjamin she used to know.
This was a man who'd surgically destroyed Shelly's mind and body.
And he was coming for her next.
The Mansion
Muya's voice faded into the background as he spoke, words flowing out nervously—practiced lines, confessions, apologies… all falling flat.
Then it hit him.
Erica wasn't listening.
She sat there with a blank, pained stare, her arms still holding the faint warmth of where Penny had rested. Muya's heart skipped—how did he not see it sooner? The slump in her shoulders, the distant look in her eyes—she was somewhere else entirely.
