Chapter 66

While waiting at the traffic light, she glanced at her phone and suddenly remembered – it was Friday! The “StonksOnlyGoUp” group had planned an in-person meetup today: Coach Murphy, Dale, and Dr. Handsome. She was about to check the group messages when the light turned green, so she set her phone aside and kept driving.

When she got home, the Windsors were all gathered in the living room, deep in conversation about something she couldn’t catch. As soon as she walked in, every face turned to her in surprise, their eyes fixed on her like she was some kind of apparition.

Adkins spoke first. “How are you feeling?”

Ivy’s face was cold. “Thanks for asking. Still alive, for now.”

“Just listen to her! Listen to that attitude!” Rosetta’s hands trembled with anger as she snapped, “Your father’s worried about you – what’s wrong with that? Why must you always be so sarcastic? And who do you think you’re giving that attitude to every day? You think we asked some trafficker to kidnap you?”

“Actually, you got it right. It was your precious youngest daughter who brought them to me,” Ivy replied.

The tension in the room was palpable; you could practically hear the air crackle.

Emma opened her mouth to shoot back, but her eyes landed on the bag in Ivy’s hand. She shrank back, tugging urgently at Rosetta’s sleeve. “Mom, she’s brought back something disgusting again…”

Adkins immediately demanded, “What did you bring this time?”

Standing in the doorway to the housekeeper’s room, Ivy lifted the bag for everyone to see. “It’s food for ‘Emma’ – just some snakes, bugs, and mice. Anyone want a taste?”

The Windsors stared at her in horrified silence.

Emma looked ready to burst into tears. “Dad, Mom! She’s mocking me again!”

Ivy watched her sister’s eyes well up, and instead of feeling bad, she fanned the flames. “You might want to save those tears for prison. You’ll need them there.”

Emma froze, panic flashing across her face. “What do you mean?”

Did Ivy have evidence against her?

But Ivy didn’t clarify. Instead, she changed the subject abruptly, icy and offhand. “Your Micah spent the whole afternoon with me, by the way. But don’t worry, it was all very proper – nothing happened.”

Emma’s eyes nearly popped out of her head. “That’s impossible! He was at work all afternoon, in meetings!”

“Oh, is that what he told you?” Ivy pretended to think, then added, “His uncle, Dr. Ludwig, can vouch for us. If they hadn’t helped me today, I might have died out there. I was in such a rush, I forgot to thank them – since you’re so close, maybe you can do it for me.”

With that, Ivy flashed a satisfied smile at Emma, who looked like she was about to explode, then pushed open the door and disappeared into her room.

The temperature in the living room seemed to drop below zero.

Rosetta turned to her youngest, putting on a soothing tone. “Don’t listen to her. She’s just trying to stir up trouble between you and Micah.”

“But Micah can’t let her go!” Emma wailed, then stormed upstairs in tears. Moments later, the sound of a heated argument drifted down – she was clearly on the phone with Micah already.

In the housekeeper’s room, Ivy fed her black-and-white kingsnake, then draped a cloth over the terrarium.

Her phone was still buzzing. Only then did she remember she hadn’t checked the group chat yet.

She opened WhatsApp and started scrolling – over a hundred new messages.

Finally, she found a photo: three men, arms around each other, grinning at the camera.

A wave of excitement washed over her. She couldn’t wait to see what Dr. Handsome actually looked like. She tapped the photo, zoomed in-