Chapter 66: DOMINION OF THE CENTAURS

The car ride back to the Webster family house was engulfed in a thick silence. None of them spoke, and the tension between them only grew heavier with every passing second. Ella sat quietly, her mind churning with guilt and regret, her thoughts a cacophony of memories and realizations. She had just lost her last real connection with Xina. The moment her daughter signed those papers, any remaining legal ties between them were severed. Ella couldn’t help but remember the nights when Xina was younger, those times when she would call for her, needing her comfort. Xina had always reached out to her when she was sick, in pain, or simply overwhelmed by the cruelty of the world around her. But Ella, fearing Greg’s wrath, never answered those calls. She hadn’t dared to step out of line, not when Greg would shoot her that cold, piercing glare — the one that made her feel worthless for even considering Xina as her child. Ella’s betrayal wasn’t a single act. It was an accumulation of years where