Chapter 23
~ Hailey ~
"I don't think that's a good idea," Yvonne said, forcing a laugh that sounded brittle even to her own ears. "Games like that are… childish."
Jackson waved her off immediately, not even looking at her as he did it. "Oh, come on. Don't be a killjoy. We're all adults here."
I saw the muscle jump beneath her carefully made-up skin. But she didn't push back.
She rarely did when Jackson dismissed her like that, when he treated her concerns as silly or overprotective or unnecessarily cautious. She only redirected, recalculated, waited for a better moment to regain control.
That was Yvonne's way — never confronting power directly, always finding the side entrance, the weakness, the leverage point.
I recognized the pattern because I'd been watching it my whole
