Chapter 5

The silence stretched like a taut wire ready to snap. Every face around the mahogany table stared at me with varying degrees of shock, disbelief, and in Colton's case, pure rage.

My phone buzzed against my thigh—once, twice, three times in rapid succession. I didn't need to look to know it was Colton, his fingers flying across his screen in desperation. The messages would be threats, pleas, demands that I take back what I'd just said. That I fall back in line like the obedient little wife I'd been in my previous life.

I ignored every vibration.

Elder Chad's weathered…