Lenora exhaled slowly, recognizing the barb buried in the words. Hailey wanted her attention. Against her better judgment, Lenora opened Hailey’s posted stories.
The screen lit up with images: Hailey buried in presents, her smile luminous. She wore a pale pink satin dress—Evan’s gift—its softness almost fragile. Evan and Raymond stood close, arms draped around her shoulders like guardians. More pictures followed: glittering shoes from Evan, a golden-handled dagger from Raymond—a gift normally reserved for the pack’s inner circle.
And then the final photo: Hailey framed between them, her caption gleaming at the bottom—“Felt like a princess today!”
For a moment, the old ache stirred, but Lenora forced it down. Let Hailey have them, if that was how things were now. In a week, none of this would matter. She tapped a heart emoji beneath the story, feeling strangely lighter, as though closing a door. Evan, Raymond, Hailey—all of them would soon be part of her past.