Lola's POV

The name on the paper was Elder Joseph.

The man who had pressured me to marry Flint. Who had sat across from my family and laid out consequences like cards on a table.

Who had been woven into the fabric of council life for as long as I could remember. He had been there at the beginning of all of it, not watching the conspiracy unfold, but driving it.

Morgan and I drove back from Karen's cabin in silence. There was nothing to say that the weight in the car wasn't already saying. We ...