Cross My Tigress Face the Wrath

Stella's silence alone had Cloudia fuming, but now that she'd spoken, it only fueled her anger further.

Stella's eyes were cold, and a sardonic chuckle escaped her lips. Ignoring Cloudia entirely, she turned to the butler standing nearby. "Make the arrangements to discharge Jaxon." The butler nodded dutifully. "Yes, Miss."

Cloudia's breath hitched, and she shot to her feet. "Are you out of your mind? He's your own brother!

You've already pushed Ursula to the brink, and now you're going to do this to him?"

Stella lifted her gaze to meet Cloudia's. "Mrs. Larkin, have you forgotten? There's nothing between us anymore."

The color drained from Cloudia's face. "You, you..."

Stella picked up the coffee pot and poured herself a cup of coffee, her movements unhurried and deliberate.

"You guys are very fond of throwing your weight around, aren't you?"

She couldn't forget how they'd treated her- trying to bury her, both literally and metaphorically.

Stella continued, "You've used that power to oppress others for years, haven't you? The Larkin family has been running rampant in this town for ages."

Especially Cloudia, whose infamous reputation among the society ladies was all too well-known.

short, angry gasps. "You can't do this. You've already made Ursula incurable.

will you?" Stella cut her off sharply, her gaze cold and piercing,

her words dying on her

Larkin family's use of the

familial love was- the kind the Quinn family had taught her to cherish deeply. But the Larkins had given her a new understanding of

Cloudia hesitated. "Why?"

of not knowing the difference between close and distant, claiming he was my

mind scrambling to process Stella's

get it?" Stella asked, a faint smirk tugging at

was at a loss

your pretentious faces and your

have been different. But the Larkin family's version of "family" was

anyone else, they'd either be dead from one of Ursula's 'accidents' or driven to their death by you, their

en novelxo

chill run through her as a question surfaced

really been this monstrous

idea of discipline so warped it had bred this hatred in her

sound. Her eyes were mocking. "I thought you might have learned something by now.

let the words hang in the air before turning her gaze