*~~Chapter One Hundred and Seventy-Eight~~*

{~~Avery Sterling~~}

Sometimes, bad news doesn’t knock on the door. It crashes through, uninvited, like a nightmare seeping into reality, leaving you gasping for air. I had that gut feeling two days ago when the rain wouldn’t stop, pounding on the roof like a warning, like it was trying to tell me something I wasn’t ready to hear. For two days, I waited, the storm outside matching the one inside my chest. I waited, hoping against hope that maybe—just maybe—there wouldn’t be anything waiting for me on the other side. But that’s the thing about bad news: it finds its way to you no matter how hard you try to avoid it.

When the storm finally broke, the rain easing to a drizzle, I made a rushed drive to the prison. My hands gripped the wheel too tight, my heart racing faster with every mile. There was only one person I needed to talk to—one person who might hold the answers, or at least offer some clarity amidst the chaos. My twin. Ava.

Ava was sitting in her cell when I arrived, a smug lo