Dawn Taylor stood in the middle of Home Farm, her heart pounding with a mixture of anger and desperation.

The walls of the grand estate, which had once seemed imposing and luxurious, now felt like they were closing in on her, suffocating her with memories of betrayal and lies.

Everything she had been holding in for so long was about to spill out, and there was no turning back.

It all started with a lie—one that Dawn had told in a moment of weakness, born out of a desperate need to justify her actions, to make sense of the turmoil in her life.

She had told Will that she had taken Rose in when he and Kim had abandoned her, that she had been the only one to step up when they had turned their backs.

It was a lie designed to wound, to make Will feel the sting of betrayal that she had felt so many times before.

But now, as the truth began to unravel, Dawn realized that this lie had only added fuel to the fire of her already fractured relationship with Will.

The tension between them had been building for weeks, ever since the incident with Evan’s bone marrow transplant.

Dawn had been devastated by Will’s decision to prioritize Kim’s wishes over their grandson’s life, and the trust that had once existed between them was shattered.

She had tried to push down the hurt, to carry on for the sake of her children, but the pain was too deep, too raw. It had festered inside her, turning into resentment and anger that she could no longer contain.

When the truth about Rose came to light, it was as though a dam had broken. Dawn could see the shock in Will’s eyes, the disbelief as he tried to process what she had said. But behind that shock, there was something else—guilt. Will had known, deep down, that he had failed her, that he had let Kim’s influence cloud his judgment and hurt the people he cared about most. But Dawn wasn’t interested in his guilt. She was too consumed by her own emotions, too focused on the decision she had already made.

“I can’t do this anymore, Will,” Dawn said, her voice trembling with the weight of her emotions. “I can’t live here, in this place, pretending like everything is okay when it’s not. You chose Kim over us—over Evan—and I don’t know how to forgive that.”

Will’s face fell, and for a moment, Dawn saw a flicker of the man she had once trusted, the man who had been a father figure to her when she needed one most. But that flicker was quickly extinguished by the reality of their situation. Will was lost, caught between his loyalty to Kim and his love for his family, and he had no idea how to bridge the gap that had opened up between them.

“Dawn, please,” Will pleaded, his voice filled with desperation. “I didn’t mean to hurt you. I just…I didn’t know what to do. Kim—she’s complicated, and I’ve been trying to keep everything together. But you and the kids—you’re my family. I don’t want to lose you.”