Chapter 1102
Jude didn’t answer. He couldn’t. Because part of him wasn’t sure she was wrong.
The next morning dawned strangely quiet. The air was thick, humid, clinging to their skin as Jude and Emma moved cautiously through the early fog that coiled like breath over the ground. Sophie stirred just behind them, eyes sharp despite the restless sleep none of them truly got. The others, Rose, Layla, Zoey, Lucy, Natalie, Stella, Grace, and Susan, were already up, already moving, already whispering among themselves as they disappeared into the trees.
They didn’t say where they were going. They didn’t need to.
Jude looked back at the fading silhouettes of his wives slipping between the trees, their bodies relaxed, playful, beautiful, but wrong. Unified. Flowing in eerie, silent choreography. That perfect synchronized seduction.
"She’s going to take someone else today," Emma said.
"There’s no one left," Sophie replied, her voice tense.
"There’s still me," Emma said flatly.
Jude reached out, taking Emma’s hand. It was warm, strong, but he could feel the tension beneath her skin. "We won’t let that happen," he said.
But all three of them knew how helpless they’d been. How invisible the corruption was until it bloomed behind their eyes and through their smiles. Rose never took them by force. She seduced, she whispered, she wrapped herself around their fears and made surrender feel like salvation.
They gathered fruit and fish without speaking much, eyes always scanning the woods. Jude could feel Sophie watching him. She didn’t say it, but he could hear the thought: What if Rose came for Emma while they were gone? What if she came for you?
They returned to camp by midmorning. The fire was already lit, surrounded by the others, their laughter bright and infectious. Rose waved as they approached, her expression warm and easy.