My head struck the bed rail.
White light burst behind my eyes.
For a second, I heard nothing except the deep underwater thud of my pulse.
Then Noah screamed.
Warm blood slid from the corner of my mouth.
Margaret stood above me, breathing hard, Noah clutched against her fur coat.
“You ungrateful little fool,” she hissed. “I’m his grandmother. I determine what’s best for him.”
Something inside me went still.
Not calm.
Still.
The way a courtroom becomes still just before a verdict is read.
The accommodating version of me—the woman who had ignored every insult to protect Ethan’s relationship with his family, who had swallowed Margaret’s cruelty because confrontation seemed more dangerous than endurance—simply disappeared.
I looked Margaret directly in the eyes.
