CHAPTER 189
KATYA POV
I couldn't stay in the kitchen.
The warmth, the smells, the pretending—it all felt wrong now, like I'd walked into someone else's life and overstayed my welcome.
I slipped out before Miss Stella could stop me, my footsteps light but urgent as I moved through the corridor. No one called my name. No one tried to drag me back.
That somehow hurt more.
The doors to the garden stood open, letting in the late afternoon breeze. I stepped outside and inhaled deeply, like I'd been underwater and had only just broken the surface.
The air smelled like earth and leaves and something faintly floral. Real. Unpolished.
My chest still felt tight.
Lila's words echoed no matter how hard I tried to outrun them.
Killer.
Enemy.
Stray.
I walked without direction, following the stone path that curved through hedges trimmed into careful obedience.
Everything here was controlled. Even nature knew its place. I wondered what happened to things that didn't.
