A Widow's Poison, A Wife's Rebellion novel Chapter 517

If Darleen and Xenia were in agony, Brinley’s suffering was on another level entirely.

Felix had called her. “You need to get Fairfax to stop investigating us!” he’d snarled.

Though he was trying to suppress his rage, Brinley could hear the raw frustration in his voice. She remained silent. Already worn down by the pressure from Starla, this new development from Felix was another heavy blow.

“He’s still investigating you?” she asked, her voice thin.

“What do you think? Brinley, you’ve really screwed me over this time! You’ve doomed the entire Fowler family!” he roared. “I told you we couldn’t see each other, but you wouldn’t listen. Are you happy now that Fairfax caught us red-handed?”

Brinley said nothing. Happy? No, she wasn't happy. Felix was being driven mad by Fairfax’s investigation, and she was paying a steep price herself. Even though she’d managed to shift some of the blame onto Starla, Fairfax’s trust in her had been shaken, and Starla was targeting her with relentless cruelty.

The cold was biting. The hand holding her phone was so numb that it felt like the blood had stopped flowing. People used to say you become numb to pain, that after a certain point you can’t feel it anymore. But Brinley was learning that wasn’t true. You could still feel the pain through the numbness. Her fingers were stiff and wooden, yet they ached fiercely from the cold.

“How am I supposed to stop him? You know as well as I do that the moment he started investigating us, it meant he’d stopped trusting me,” she argued. Telling Fairfax to back off now would only make him more suspicious.

“I don’t care. You started this mess, so you’re going to be the one to fix it,” Felix shot back, his tone unforgiving. “If my family goes down because of you, Brinley, you can just go kill yourself!”

Her face went white at his heartless words. “Felix, you ungrateful bastard! Have you forgotten everything I did for you…?”

Sally, who had been assigned to work with Brinley, saw her standing motionless again and stomped over in a fury. “What are you doing now? Let’s just finish shoveling so we can find somewhere to get out of this wind!”

If Brinley didn't do her share of their assigned area, Sally would have to do more. It was absolutely freezing outside, and all she wanted was to finish the work and find a place that offered even a little bit of warmth. Even a spot sheltered from the wind would be better than nothing.

The wind today was brutal, carrying the chill of the snow and cutting right through to the bone. Standing still in the cold like Brinley was doing would only make it worse. Sally couldn’t understand it. There was a time and a place for slacking off, and this wasn’t it.

“Shovel, shovel, shovel! What do you think I am? A servant for the Yelchin family?” Brinley, already on edge from her call with Felix, finally snapped. The anger she’d been suppressing erupted uncontrollably.