A Widow's Poison, A Wife's Rebellion novel Chapter 561

It was impossible to talk about the past. Starla and Fairfax were on completely different wavelengths, their perspectives worlds apart.

Seeing that he was getting nowhere, Fairfax fell silent. He lit a cigarette in frustration, the smoke curling around him. Then he asked a question that left Starla stunned—so stunned she went numb.

“That phone call she got,” Fairfax began, his voice low. “Did it have anything to do with you?”

“What phone call?” Starla asked, though the answer clicked into place a second later. He was talking about the call Brinley received—the one where Darleen overheard her confessing to someone that she was the one who killed Faraday. The call that had driven Darleen to nearly beat Brinley to death.

If no one had intervened, Darleen might have actually killed Brinley today. And now… Fairfax was asking if she had orchestrated it.

Starla let out a soft, incredulous laugh. “You’re asking me if I had anything to do with it? Fairfax, I saved Brinley’s life today. I also saved your mother from becoming a murderer. I haven’t heard a single word of gratitude from you, and now you’re asking me if that call was my doing?”

How utterly laughable. He must have completely numbed his own senses just to keep believing in Brinley. How else could he even form such a question?

Fairfax said nothing.

“How could you even ask that?” Starla continued, her voice a mix of amusement and disbelief. “How much do you have to trust Brinley to think that way?”

It was the kind of trust that allowed him to see Brinley get into Felix’s car with his own eyes and still somehow believe it was Starla’s fault. And now, this was even more ridiculous. Darleen and Brinley had nearly killed each other over that call, and his first thought was to blame her. In his mind, was everything somehow connected to Starla?

Starla watched him, a faint, mocking smile on her lips.

Before the silence could settle, Harley’s number flashed on the screen. The sight of their names made his head ache.

Compared to them, Darleen, Xenia, and Brinley were in a better position. At least they were in Marina City and had somewhere to go in a pinch. Starla was just tormenting them by keeping them at the family estate.

But Harley, who was abroad, and Annika, who had been at the nursing home, were truly stranded. Starla’s tactics had left them with nowhere to go and no way to return to Marina City.

Watching the calls from Annika and Harley come in one after the other, Fairfax felt a wave of suffocation and turned to Starla. “At least let my grandmother have a place to stay,” he pleaded.

Darian had called him earlier and made it clear—everyone had been warned off. No one dared to help him now.