CHAPTER 186
Isabella kept her hands flat against the marble, the cold surface seeping through her skin and chilling the restlessness beneath her.
Behind her, she could still feel the weight of Alaric's stare lingering as he silently walked into the kitchen.
He had been heading this way before their eyes met on the stairs, and despite the thick tension radiating off Isabella, he didn't turn back.
"You're here," Clara remarked without looking up from her work, the rhythm of her knife against the wooden block unchanging.
"Yes," Alaric replied, moving deeper into the kitchen, his footsteps cautious. He gave Isabella a wide berth, deliberately placing a significant amount of distance between them as he moved toward the other side of the island.
He stopped close enough to Clara that he could have reached out and touched the hem of her robes, yet he remained stiff, his body language screaming of a man walking on glass.
