A Widow's Poison, A Wife's Rebellion novel Chapter 1228

Hearing her offer her life so casually, so effortlessly, Fairfax froze.

"What did you just say?" His voice dropped an octave, dripping with absolute menace.

"I'm done debating who fired the first shot or who is right," Starla said, her voice eerily calm.

Yes, he and Brinley had started the entire toxic avalanche. When Starla had first seen the fabricated evidence of her mother's murder, she had snapped. She hadn't cared to verify it.

But none of that didn't matter now. The body count was too high. Right and wrong were meaningless concepts now. She had lost every ounce of her will to live.

She knew exactly what awaited her if Fairfax captured her. It wouldn't be a quick death; it would be a prolonged, agonizing torment. He would make her beg for death.

She could easily take Romy's advice, run back to the ivory tower of the Hoggart family, and hide behind her father's empire.

But Starla wasn't a coward. More importantly, she was entirely exhausted by this unending cycle of venom. She wanted out.

"I'm asking you a simple question," she stated, her tone infused with the quiet strength of someone who no longer feared death. "Do you want my life or not?"

"Do you have any idea what the hell you are saying?" Fairfax snapped. Beneath his roaring fury, he felt a strange, involuntary tremor in his chest. Her voice was utterly hollow—the sound of a soul that had completely given up.

"I do. I know your mother, your father, and your sister are dead. The reasons don't matter anymore. The reality is all that's left. You have every right to hate me, and I deserve your hatred."

Fairfax's breathing grew heavy. "And?"

"And so, if you want my life for theirs, it's yours."

It was all she had left to give.

And now she was using the ghosts of their dead children to balance the ledger of his murdered family. It was a brutal, flawless strike straight to his heart.

He had spent months feeling like the Hoggarts were plunging knives into his chest, but this cut the deepest.

Fairfax closed his eyes tightly. "Get your ass back to Marina City."

He refused to have this conversation over the phone. If she was breathing, he was going to look her in the eye when they settled this.

"What?" he sneered when she didn't respond immediately. "Don't even have the spine to face me in person?"

"Okay," Starla whispered.