Chapter 81: Finding the Dark Hand

Horace was losing his mind. The Shaw family had finally reacted. Only this time, it was no mere insult of taking their daughter. This was outright destruction.   “Horace,” Martha breathed, her hand rising to cover her mouth in horror. “What did you do to them? What did you do to make them come after us like this?”   Her husband’s gaze was haunted, his skin sallow and slick with cold sweat. He opened his mouth to respond, but the words died in his throat as a plaintive voice echoed from the second-floor balcony overhead.   “Dad?”   Both Horace and Martha whipped their heads up in unison to see their youngest daughter, Selene, standing frozen in the shadows above. Horace felt his heart plummet into his stomach as realization bloomed across the young woman’s face.   “It… It was because of me, wasn’t it?” She whispered, tears streaming down her cheeks.   She looked hollow and weak. She had barely survived the Shaw family’s dungeons, now this?   “Whatever you did, it was becau