A Widow's Poison, A Wife's Rebellion novel Chapter 126

The truth was, from the moment this whole mess started, they knew Starla wasn't playing around.

"Alright, alright, stop glaring at me," Caden said, exasperated. "You should be thinking of a way to win her back. Weren't you always good at calming her down? What happened this time? It's been days, and you still haven't managed to cool her off?"

"Or have you not even tried to make up with her?"

Darian, who had remained silent, saw the thunderous look on Fairfax's face and shot Caden a warning glance to shut him up. Fairfax was clearly in no mood to listen to anyone.

But Caden missed Darian’s signal. Seeing Fairfax's darkening expression, he pressed on, "It must be Brinley causing trouble again, right? Starla isn't petty. You could usually smooth things over pretty easily. This time, Brinley must have really gone too far if even you can't calm Starla down."

Caden actually had a point. For the first two years of their marriage, no matter how angry Starla got, it was manageable because they didn't live with the Yelchins. Back then, with Faraday around, there was a limit to how much trouble Brinley could stir up. If Starla was upset after a family dinner, she could at least go home and forget about it, making it easier for Fairfax to placate her.

But this time was different. Brinley had been causing problems for over half a year. No wonder Fairfax couldn't fix it. Just in the last couple of days, he'd wanted to make things right with Starla, but something always came up—either Brinley needed him or there was a problem with her babies. He remembered Brinley calling him right before he left Petal Villa. Maybe Starla had burned the house down out of sheer frustration.

Fairfax had no idea that the fire was actually a direct response to Xenia's provocation.

"If you ask me," Caden said, "you should just let her go. Your family is impossible to deal with. They're all drama."

The air grew even colder. Darian tugged at Caden's sleeve. "That's enough, stop talking."

"Isn't it obvious? You all pushed her to this!" Fairfax roared back.

Caden and Darian froze, stunned by his outburst. Was he... defending Starla?

"What... what did you say?" Darleen stammered from the other end.

"I said, she did the right thing burning it down! Her marital home is in her sister-in-law's name! If it were me, I'd have burned it down too!" Fairfax was already frantic from not being able to find Starla, and Darleen's call pushed him over the edge. He didn't hold back, not even for his own mother. "Burning down Petal Villa is nothing! She should burn it all to the ground! You all want her things so badly? Go ahead, take the ashes!"