After Lana left, Annelise Valentine and Zane Patterson were plunged into silence.
The silence was heavy, so crushing she could barely breathe.
Annelise Valentine stared at the roof of the tent. There was a tear in the drab gray canvas, letting in a sliver of light. She gazed at it, motionless, as if trying to burn a hole through the fabric with her eyes.
'Her mind was a chaotic mess of self-reproach.'
'If, before that engagement party, she hadn't thrown a tantrum... If she hadn't gone to Aethelgard to confront Jett Westgate, but had instead sat down to have a proper talk with her parents...'
'If she had found those paintings sooner, had seen him for who he truly was, would she have still been fooled by his words?'
'If, on that trip to Veridia, she hadn't been bewitched by him, she wouldn't be pregnant now... Would things have ended differently?'
She didn't know.
She didn't know anything at all.
