CHAPTER SIXTY SIX

ELIZABETH'S POV

After the baffling encounter with the strange woman, I noticed my mom's expression shrouded in mystery after she had discretely pulled her aside for a hushed conversation. The stranger, having whispered her piece, departed with as much intrigue as she had arrived.

This perplexing occurrence seemed to cast a shadow over my father's mood, his silence lingering throughout our return home like a dense fog that refused to dissipate.

My father's temperament, an amalgamation of fierce protectiveness and simmering jealousy, stirred like a tempestuous sea within him. Perhaps it was the sweet nothings exchanged between my mother and the strange woman that suddenly changed his mood. For my father, any display of closeness between women was akin to a treacherous path, one he adamantly discouraged me from traversing. His aversion to female friendships for me was a riddle I had yet to decipher.

As the car came to a halt, my father uncharacteristically alighted without performing h