A Widow's Poison, A Wife's Rebellion novel Chapter 138

The car shot forward like a bullet. Startled, Starla instinctively gripped the armrest.

“Fairfax, what are you doing? Stop the car!”

Enraged by her unwavering determination to leave him, Fairfax drove like a madman, weaving recklessly through traffic. A chorus of angry horns and shouts followed them, but he didn’t slow down.

As they sped onto the bridge spanning the river, Starla’s heart leaped into her throat. For a terrifying moment, she thought he was going to drive them straight into the water. He was insane, completely unhinged, driven mad by her desire for a divorce.

“Stop the car!” she screamed again.

She realized then that he had tricked her. He had no intention of signing any papers; it was all a ploy to lure her out of hiding.

“You want to divorce me to be with Herbert?” he roared, his voice thick with fury. “In your dreams! I’m telling you, in your dreams!”

“There’s really nothing between me and Herbert,” she insisted, though it felt pointless.

“Hah! Now you say there’s nothing? What did you tell me on the phone last night?”

She fell silent. She had said what she needed to in order to provoke him.

“You want to cause trouble, right?” he taunted. “Fine. Tell me, what do you want to burn next? I’ll burn it all down for you.”

“Burn down the Yelchin family estate,” she shot back, her own anger flaring. “Go on.”

He stared at her, stunned into silence.

“Weren’t you offering to help me make a mess?” she continued, her voice dripping with sarcasm. “You can’t seem to handle Brinley and Harriet, so why not just burn down the entire estate? It’s a place I loathe anyway.”

The sound of the slap silenced the commotion. Starla watched them, a faint, mocking smile on her lips.

Darleen rounded on her. “You menace! You burned down Petal Villa yesterday, and now you want to burn down our family home? Have we wronged you so much that you wish we were all dead?”

“What do you mean, ‘I’ wish you were dead?” Starla replied coolly. “Your son is the one with the gasoline.”

Darleen was so incensed she could barely speak. She marched up to Starla, her hand raised to strike. But the blow never landed. Starla caught her wrist in a grip of steel.

“Let go!” Darleen shrieked. How dare she fight back?

“Have you forgotten?” Starla’s voice was chillingly calm, her eyes like ice. “No matter how compliant I seemed before, I never once let you hit me.”

The coldness in her gaze made Darleen’s heart tremble.