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Chapter 21
Hayley’s POV The next morning, I was zoning out in the kitchen, trying to piece together the emotional rollercoaster of Aiden’s messed-up backstory, when Mom’s raised voice drifted in from the living room. “I need you to accelerate the timetable. We’re quickly running out of runway for containing this situation.” I froze, a cup of coffee halfway to my lips, as I strained to make out who she was talking to. That clipped, all-business tone seemed wildly out of character for my usually soft-spoken mother. “Potential exposure by the circles grows more severe each day,” she continued tersely. “Haley’s defiance has already put us in a deeply vulnerable position that can’t be walked back through traditional channels.” My heart kicked into overdrive as I realized, with slowly mounting dread, that she was talking about me-about the fallout from my refusal to hide my relationship with Aiden anymore. “I understand the severity, Rebecca,” an unfamiliar woman’s voice crackled over the line, somehow sounding even more rigid than Mom’s own tone. “Which is why our endgame contingencies must be enacted without further delay.” Mom sighed, the sound shockingly weary and hopeless. “You’re certain she’s meant to be here? You promised that a long time ago when you desperately wanted a child.” I desperately wanted a child. What was going on? Frozen in numb shock, I barely registered Mom’s next words until a single phrase snapped my wandering focus back like a rubberband. “Jada, are you absolutely certain that giving her up might not be that easy?” “You had her because of me! If it weren’t for my help, you would be childless for life.” Those words struck me like a bolt of lightning. My mother? Struggled with birth? “You owe me as much as giving her to me.” Jada stated. I damn near dropped my mug as the bottom fell out of my stomach. “Unfortunately, that kind of collateral damage to the subject’s base physiological integrity is unavoidable,” Jada replied, her voice devoid of any remorse or empathy. “We must be prepared to make whatever sacrifices are required to prevent full diffusive rendering from manifesting.” “My God…” I could hear the naked anguish and defeat in Mom’s voice as the weight of it all came crashing down. “You’re talking about irreparably erasing my little girl’s very essence-everything that makes her whole and human-all for this grand cosmic agenda none of us even understand!” “It’s not a matter of understanding,” Jada stated flatly. “Only doing whatever is necessary, no matter how unpalatable.” She paused briefly before adding, “I trust you still have the clearance intel to know precisely what an obliterated reality means on a conceptual level, Rebecca?” There was a horrible, leaden moment of silence before Mom finally spoke again, her voice brittle and halting now. “Yes, I’m aware of the full rendition. Of what the rending asundry looks like…” Shuddering violently, I clutched the kitchen counter to prevent my knees from buckling. My own mother, conspiring to subject me to some nightmarish cosmic mutilation that would “erase my very essence”? It was worse than any horrific scenario I could’ve conjured in my worst fever dreams. I felt simultaneously nauseous and untethered from any sense of reality. “I need time…” Mom was saying it, her voice thick with unshed tears. “Just a few more days to attempt reaching Haley on my own terms, to explain.” “You’ll receive no more extensions, Rebecca.” Jada’s tone brooked no arguments. “We’ve already issued the rendition order. If you cannot bring your primary into peaceful compliance within the next cycle, my team will have no choice but to exercise our principles.” She let the ominous threat hang for a beat before adding icily, “I trust I don’t need to underscore how messy and painful that process would inevitably become.” The line went dead silent. Just the crackle of dead air and the sound of Mom’s ragged breathing fill the void. Transfixed in dawning horror, I could only gape at her ashen face as she turned towards the kitchen. Towards me, frozen with the mug clutched in a death grip, having heard every last word pass between her and Aiden’s depraved aunt. “Hayley…” she breathed out on a ghost of a whisper, like the name itself was an unbearable admission. “Oh, my sweet girl, what have I?” But no amount of fumbling apologies or empty platitudes from her lips could undo the sickening revelations I’d just overheard.
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Hayley’s Pov I was barely holding it together as I trudged into class the next morning. After the sheer cosmic windstorm of truth bombs dropped on me by Mom and Aiden’s deranged aunt, I felt like I was living in a complete nightmare dimension. But of course, because the universe just loves kicking me squarely in the teeth, that’s when Alessa had to go make her grand re-entrance. “Well, well, if it isn’t Clueless Barbie herself,” that grating nasal voice sneered as I shuffled to my usual desk. “Back for more public humiliation, I see?” I looked up to find that bitch sidling right up to Aiden, running a single freshly-manicured nail down his arm as he tried to avoid her gaze. “Give it a rest, Alessa,” he muttered, shrugging away from her touch without meeting her eyes. “We both know you’re just looking to stir up more drama.” “Me?” She put a hand on her chest in faux innocence. “Why, I’m simply here to lend a sympathetic ear after that horrific domestic dispute you two lovebirds were having in the halls yesterday.” Flashing me a wicked grin, she leaned in conspiratorially close to Aiden, practically draping herself over him. “I heard every heartbreaking word, Aiden. How she accused you of hooking for your degenerate aunt’s prostitution ring and whatnot.” I saw Aiden visibly tense and felt my own molten fury roaring back to life, burning away any vestiges of the shattered numbness that had swallowed me whole last night. “If you know what’s good for you, you’ll back the fuck off right now.” I heard my own voice snarl before I could stop it. But Alessa was too far gone in her douche-chill spiral, drunk on the misery she was inflicting as she nuzzled even closer to Aiden. “It’s okay, baby; you don’t need to suffer in silence anymore,” she practically purred at him, making me want to vomit. “I’m here for you, same as before. Happy to lend you a friendly” Her tongue skimmed slowly over her ruby lips. “distraction from her insufferable self-righteousness.” “For the last time, you depraved skank, get your paws off my man!” I was on my feet with fists clenched so hard that the nails bit into my palms. That finally got Aiden to look up, his eyes widening as he registered the barely contained explosion about to erupt in his face. “Hales, c’mon, you know she’s just trying to get a rise out of…” “You’re the last person who gets to patronize me right now.” I cut him off, barely recognizing my own eerily calm voice as the fury burned white-hot within me. Then, before anyone could react, I was moving. Grabbing Alessa by her platinum extensions, I used every ounce of preternatural strength coursing through me to yank her bodily off Aiden and fling her against the nearest wall. “YOU PSYCHOTIC BITCH!” she screeched at glass-shattering decibels. “DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW MUCH I PAID FOR THESE KERATIN BONDINGS?!?!” I just stalked towards her fallen, thrashing form, every instinct in me screaming to lash out and rend the miserable succubus limb from limb. “Now who’s failing to recognize a mere distraction when they see one?” I seethed down at her, feeling more unhinged and volatile by the second. “You come sniffing around my mate again, and I’ll show you just how depraved things can get when someone pushes me too far!” By now, the whole classroom had erupted into pandemonium-kids screaming and fleeing for the exits like a fire had broken out, Mona and Mina yelling for everyone to back off before I went full-on feral on Alessa’s stupid ass. Aiden was up out of his seat too, rushing over to try putting himself between us. “Haley, stop! You’ve made your point! Just take a breath and… “You don’t get to play peacemaker here!” I exploded, whirling on him with wild, furious eyes. “Not after lying to my face over and over about all your sick, degenerate activities!” He recoiled like I’d just slapped him, his face twisting in pained confusion. “Whoa, whoa, babe, what are you even talking about? I’ve never lied to” “Your dear old aunt Jada filled me in on all the gory details,” I spat with as much venom as I could muster, taking a vicious pleasure in the way his face managed to pale even further. “She… you… you spoke to Aunt Jada?” He croaked out, radiating pure dismay. “Among other enlightening revelations courtesy of my own batshit crazy mother,” I laughed bitterly, moisture stinging at the corners of my eyes now. “Everything you told me about being some helpless, exploited victim of their prostitution racket? All lies, just another layer of deception to keep me blind and loyal to you!” Aiden opened his mouth to protest, but I wasn’t having any of his dissembling bullshit today. “Save whatever fresh manipulations you’ve got locked and loaded, Aiden,” I hissed, reverting back to his surname out of sheer disdain. “I’m officially done being gaslit by another pathological liar, even if you happen to be the love of my miserable life!” On that scorching note, I wheeled around and stormed out of the classroom, heedless of the gawking masses scattering from my path, the tearful pleas of Mona and Mina calling me back, or even the whimpering wreck of Alessa still crumpled on the floor clutching her ruined hair extensions. Too many deceptions and revelations and shattered trusts were swirling through my guts like a raging maelstrom of betrayal. My head was pounding, and my vision was flickering in and out like a degrading video transmission being steadily corrupted. There was only one setting left in my world that felt even remotely stable or safe amid the fallout of so many realities unraveling around me. The one I could always count on retreating into and embracing was the only side of my existence that had never felt like a desperate lie. That of the huntress-the predator lurking in the shadows, patiently awaiting for the coming darkness to be unleashed.