Skye shot Finley a glare. "Don't you know how to talk?"

"I mean... it really looks like I saw a ghost!" Finley stammered. "You should probably take that off. Ugh, just return it!" The sight was so incongruous it was practically blinding.

"Hey, are you asking for a beating?" Skye shot back. "Didn't you hear my sister-in- law? She said I'd be corrupting innocent girls if I keep dressing like a man."

"That's not good!" Skye emphasized the words with a pointed look.

The term "sister-in-law" made Tegan tense up immediately. She glanced nervously at Finley. "I'm... I'm not..."

"What do you mean, 'not'?" Skye said casually. "My brother likes you. He might not be much to look at, but he's a good guy!"

At the words "my brother likes you," Tegan's eyes darted back to Finley.

Finley looked just as bewildered. "When did I ever say that?!"

"You didn't?" Skye blinked. "Yvonne said you did."

Finley and Tegan both fell silent.

As Skye repeated, "Yvonne said it," a lightbulb went off in her head. She looked from Finley to Tegan. "You really didn't say it?"

"No, I didn't!" Finley insisted.

"Then you..." Skye trailed off, the question "do you like her or not" getting stuck in her throat. Suddenly, she considered the possibility that Yvonne had been messing with her. After a long look at Finley, then at Tegan, she silently pulled out her phone and walked out of the room.

Finley and Tegan were left in an awkward silence, their eyes meeting.

Tegan's face flushed. "Um, I... I..."

"It's fine," Finley interrupted gently. "Star sent us to protect you. Don't overthink it. Skye just says whatever comes to her mind." Hearing his explanation Tegan visibly relaxed.

Seeing her relief, the tightness in Finley's own chest eased slightly.

Meanwhile, at the Schultz residence, chaos reigned. Skye's call arrived just as the entire household was in an uproar.

Yvonne had returned to her room to find a dead, bloody snake on her bed. It was a gruesome, unsettling sight.

She knew instantly that either Yale Schultz or Mona was behind it. The motive was obvious: the power to run the household. For days, Mona had been trying to sabotage her, from canceling breakfast arrangements to messing with the Staff's uniform schedule Yvonne had refused to take the bait, so they had escalated.

But if they wanted to play rough, Yvonne could be rougher. She snatched the dead snake and wrapped it around Mona's neck.

Mona's bloodcurdling screams shattered the peace of the Schultz home. "Ah! Ahhh!"

Yale rushed to help, fumbling to pull the snake off Mona's neck and fling it to the floor. Even dead, the slithery creature was terrifying.

Mona collapsed to the ground, trembling, looking as if she'd seen a ghost. "Yvonne... you... you... you went too far!" Her teeth chattered with fear.

Yale glared at Yvonne. "Yvonne, you're a lunatic!"

"Am I?" Yvonne took a leisurely sip of water. "If I weren't, you two would have bullied me to death by now." She had just calmly wrapped a venomous snake around Mona's neck with her bate hands, Mona her thought she could scare her out of the house with such a tactic, but it was clear who was truly afraid.

Mona couldn't believe Yvonne wasn't scared of snakes, especially a venomous one.

Her heart was still pounding. "No one is bullying you! D-don't make things up!"

"Oh? So did this snake just die and crawl into my bed on its own?" Its head had been crushed, a clear sign of foul play.

A flicker of guilt crossed Mona's eyes, but she would never admit it.