"What game are you playing now, Marina?" Max's face hovered inches from mine, his warm breath washing over my skin—yet it carried nothing but bone-deep coldness and revulsion. "Weren't you the one who had Ramona call me? Crying and begging for me to come back? And now that I'm here, you're playing mute? Trying the hard-to-get routine with me?"
His eyes dripped with contempt, his lips curling into a cruel sneer as he leaned in. The reek of alcohol and Gretchen's perfume hit me first—that cloying sweetness coiling around me like something venomous. My stomach lurched. The hatred I'd buried came roaring back.
I thrashed against him, but my strength was nothing compared to his. He had my wrists pinned, my body immobilized, every attempt to break free only making his grip tighten until my bones ached.
Desperation sharpened into something feral. I lunged forward and sank my teeth into his lip with everything I had.
"Ngh—" Max grunted, the metallic taste of blood blooming between us. He released me instantly, shoving me back as he scrambled upright. His fingers came away from his mouth smeared red. The look he gave me could have curdled milk—pure, undiluted venom.
"Marina! Have you lost your goddamn mind?!" His voice exploded through the room, raw with fury. "You bit me? You—with that pathetic innocent act, that harmless little mask you wear—you think you have the right to touch me? To bite me?"
He glared at me like I was something rotting, his words sharp as broken glass: "Just looking at you makes me sick. This is how you've always operated, isn't it? Playing the wounded doe, wrapping Grandfather around your finger, making him protect you at every turn. You manipulated him into dragging me back here, and now you're pulling this hard-to-get bullshit? You think I'll fall for it? Pathetic."
His chest heaved. He jabbed a finger at my face, each word a nail driven deeper.
"This is exactly why our daughters turned out the way they did—learning from you, from that fake helpless act. That's why they had the nerve to disrespect Gretchen in public. That's why they needed to be sent away, to learn some discipline, to be taught how to behave!"