Chapter 367:
Stella's POV
Julie turned toward me with an eerie, absolute calmness. Not a single trace of the panic or catching-her-off-guard shock I had been so desperately starving to see registered on her features. Instead, she answered me in her usual cold, steady, and dangerously level cadence.
"Yes, I actually accepted his invitation. Mike is a dear, sweet, and respectable friend. I don't see any reason or awkwardness in grabbing dinner with him tomorrow night."
The living room fell into a dead, suffocating silence for a few heavy beats. It was a dark, toxic silence, thick with gunpowder and terrifyingly soft the exact kind of quiet that precedes a devastating storm.
I didn't even need to whip my head around to look at Jake to know what his reaction looked like. The sudden change in his breath faster, deeper, a ragged, suffocating wheeze tearing through his chest was more than enough to expose the burning fury and sick, twisted jealousy violently eating him alive inside.
