"D-did you…was it you who…?" Celia stammered, the back of her neck suddenly damp with cold sweat. "Oh my lord, Mother…"
She'd always thought there was something suspicious about Sabine's demise, quiet and alone in a darkened stairwell.
She'd just never dreamed her own mother had anything to do with it.
Violet gave her daughter a fond smile, then pulled her closer again into a hug. Celia felt her mother's breath brush the shell of her ear.
It was a strange duality, she thought. The icy cold shock clutching at her heart was jarring while she stood in the familiar warmth and safety of her mother's embrace.
"I have confessed nothing to you and I never will. I'd never burden you like that, Celia. You carry enough already." Violet crooned ever so quietly. "But when you are a mother yourself, you'll understand. You'll know what it feels like to be willing to spill every last drop of your own blood, to protect your babies."
