Elin’s POV

“Elin, you should leave. I’ll keep your secret from Aaron. I don’t want to see him turn his anger on you.”

Clara cradled her scalded arm against her chest, her face etched with pain, her voice dripping with sincerity.

Her frail composure, the pitiful tremor in her tone, was enough to stir the room against me. Customers whispered their judgment, their eyes sharp with disapproval. They called me reckless, disrespectful, deserving of punishment.

How laughable. Only I knew the ...