Rose’s POV
The cab ride to Margaret’s apartment was suffocating. The smell of stale alcohol clung to her as she slumped against me, humming a garbled tune as if the night’s chaos had been a grand adventure instead of the humiliating disaster it truly was.
The farther we drove from the city center, the darker the streets became, the flickering streetlights barely illuminating the cracked asphalt and boarded-up buildings. Margaret’s apartment sat at the edge of the city, a far cry from the mansion she once ruled with an iron fist.
When the cab stopped, I helped Margaret out, her weight leaning heavily against me. She laughed, a slurred, carefree sound that grated against my nerves.
“You know,” she drawled as I guided her up the creaky porch steps, “I always knew Jack Carter would be a st
