Too Late to Hold Me Back novel Chapter 72

Adrian asked, staring at Damon.

“Dad, what do you mean? We just fell. Don’t listen to her nonsense.” Damon shot Mira a venomous glare.

“What, you want to silence the witness?”

“You… you just wait…”

“How could you just fall for no reason?” Adrian pressed.

“Dad, don’t blame my brother. I fell first by accident, and my brother was trying to help me…”

Before Mara could finish, Mira chimed in, “And to help you, Damon climbed on top of you.”

Mara hadn’t even processed it, but Damon’s eyes were wide with fury.

“Stop your baseless accusations.”

“Are you saying you weren’t on top of her just now?”

“That’s enough. This is over. Everyone, back to your rooms,” Ethan said, his sharp eyes scanning the floor. He didn’t find anything.

The powder Mira had scattered wasn’t poison. It was a condensation of smoke produced when Master Ellis was concocting a remedy. It was non-toxic but made surfaces incredibly slippery. It also evaporated quickly, leaving no color, odor, or trace. Master Ellis had simply collected it, thinking it might be useful someday, and named it “Traceless.”

Back in her room, Mira sent a text message to Damon: [I’ve saved the photos from just now. If you try to send me to juvenile detention again, I’ll release them.]

He replied instantly: [You wouldn’t dare.]

[Try me. And that’s not the only dirt I have on you.]

Just as Mira was about to go to sleep, she received another message, this time from Ethan: [You didn’t have anything to do with what happened just now, did you?]

“That defiant girl is a lost cause. She no longer has the Mercer family, her parents, or her siblings in her heart. Don’t waste any more energy on her. Just focus on taking care of Mara.”

The next morning, Mira woke up early as usual. As she came downstairs, Rachel called out to her.

“Mira, breakfast is ready. Have a little something.”

“Thank you, but I can’t. I have things to do today, I’ll just grab something on the way.”

It wasn’t that Mira didn’t want to eat; she just had to be cautious about the food in the house now. Before, only Mara had been actively trying to harm her, while the others were just biased accomplices. But now, with Damon’s selfish and narrow-minded nature, he probably saw her as an obstacle and wished she were dead.

On top of that, Adrian and Lacey would try to control her under the guise of doing what was best for her. Ethan, on the surface, wanted to mediate, but in reality, he was so charmed by Mara's sweet act that he couldn't see the root of the problem and was completely ineffective.

Therefore, she worried someone might tamper with her food. Even if Rachel cooked it herself, she wasn’t a professional in counter-sabotage, and she wasn't the only one in the kitchen.