“I hate being alone in silence,” she admitted quietly. “I can do noise. I can do chaos. But silence feels like waiting for something bad to happen. I spent so many days alone in my room. I don’t want to go back to that.”
I nodded slowly. “That tracks.”
She smiled faintly. “See? You’re good at this.”
“At hating vegetables?”
“At distracting me.”
We lay there for a moment, shoulder to shoulder, staring up at the ceiling. The quiet didn’t feel heavy anymore. It felt… shared.
And for the first time since we’d left the cells, I felt her breathing even out.
“I also don’t have a good relationship with my parents. They decided long ago that money meant more to them than I did. I got everything I ever wanted from my dad. Except parents.”
The words surprised me with how true they still were.
“Where is your family?”
“They own the Redgrave Publishing House out of Telluride.”
I hesitated. “They… control most of the information in Velithra.”
She studied me for a second longer than before.
“So… you could ruin someone pretty easily.”
“Unfortunately,” I said quietly. “Yeah.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Redgrave. That’s your last name, right?”
I sighed. “Yeah. Ian Redgrave is my father.”
Her eyes widened. “Wow. So we had an actual celebrity at Darkmoor,” she said with a small smile. “The bachelor son of the media kingpin.”
I shook my head. “Don’t. It’s not like that. I fucking hate them both.”
Her expression softened. “I’m sorry, Dev.”
I glanced up at the ceiling. “It’s fine. I know you didn’t mean anything by it.”
She hesitated.
“The Tribune’s theirs too, isn’t it?” she said quietly.
“Yeah.” I exhaled. “Very pro-Light.”
“How did you end up in Darkmoor then?” she asked.
“I was stupid. I wanted attention, so I stole my father’s Ducati and crashed it,” I huffed a laugh. “Into all his other motorbikes.”
“He thought Darkmoor would be a good learning experience.”
I paused. “Or a warning.”
“A warning of what?”
“Of what happens when I cross him.”
