Finley managed to compose himself, glaring at Skye.

"What nonsense are you spouting?"

"She's not wrong!" Skye and Finley both snapped their heads toward Tegan, their expressions twisting in disbelief.

Not wrong? What did that mean? Had she really fallen for Skye?

"Wait, I'm..."

"I thought you were a boy that day," Tegan confessed. "I was even going to ask for your number." Skye was utterly flabbergasted.

Finley's mouth twitched in annoyance.

"Tegan, are you blind? How could you possibly mistake her for a man?" No wonder she couldn't tell that Uriah was a monster all these years.

If her eyesight was so bad she couldn't distinguish between genders, how could she possibly identify a scumbag?

Skye panicked. " I... I'm not into that. I..."

"What are you talking about? I'm not into that either!" Tegan cut her off before she could finish. Skye breathed a huge sigh of relief.

Tegan huffed. "I was just giving you a heads-up. You should dress more like a girl in the future. Your androgynous style is really popular. It wouldn't be good to lead someone on by mistake!" "Oh!" Skye exclaimed.

That was a problem she'd never considered before. But now that Tegan had pointed it out, she would definitely be more careful.

Her phone vibrated with a call from a local Yoreland number. Thinking it was the hospital, Tegan answered it.

"Hello?"

"Tegan, Leslie is seriously injured, isn't she?" Uriah's voice, seething with rage, came through the line.

Tegan's eyes narrowed.

Without a word, she hung up. "Who was that?" Skye asked.

"Uriah."

"Then tell him to talk to Star..." All three of them were surprisingly in sync. Whether it was Tegan herself, Skye, or Finley, their default response to Uriah's issues with Leslie was to direct him to Stella.

And sending him to Stella was like sending him down a dead-end street.

"You're right," Tegan said.

She picked up her phone and dialed him back. It rang once before Uriah answered. "Tegan!"

"If this is about Leslie, talk to Star. It's out of my hands."

"She's in there because of you! How can you say it's out of your hands?" Uriah's furious roar blasted through the speaker.

"No," Tegan said calmly. "She's not in there because of me. She's in there because she broke the law." Before Uriah could say another word, Tegan hung up again.

It was the first time she had ever been so firm with him, the first time she had ever hung up on him without a second thought.

For years, he had been a guardian figure in her world. She was expected to listen to him, to do as he said.

Everyone, from the Horner family to the people around Uriah, had reinforced that message. The idea had been so deeply ingrained that Tegan had come to believe it herself. But fooking back now, she saw all those years as a complete waste.

Why should she have to listen to Uriah? And why did she have to stay by his side for so long? Tegan's long-standing obedience to Uriah

had shattered in an instant. Her path was finally turning in a new direction.

Meanwhile, on Susanna's end,

Lacey, who was supposed to return to Litamark in three days, had come back early. After taking a call, Huff climbed back into bed and wrapped his arms around Susanna. The movement woke her up. She blinked sleepily.

"What are you doing?" Was this really the time for cuddling?

She was so tired.

Susanna felt like she couldn't even keep her eyes open, but Hull's next words shocked her fully awake. "Your mother is at the Blacktower."