Chapter 5
Evelyn smiled for the first time when I asked where she put the ring.
Not happiness.
Satisfaction.
“I’m not telling you yet.”
I stared.
Good.
Three years beneath my estate and she still knew how to irritate me.
“Why?”
“Because I don’t know who you trust.”
That hurt.
Also fair.
“You trust Anna.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because Bianca hates staff she can’t control.”
Interesting.
Anna had worked in the estate only fourteen months.
She was never part of the old household.
No loyalties inherited.
No old favors.
Evelyn had heard her through the floor several times.
Vacuuming.
Singing quietly.
Talking to Ethan.
Normal life filtering through wood.
That became enough.
“You pushed the veil through today because Anna was cleaning.”
Evelyn nodded.
“I heard Bianca tell someone I’d be moved before midnight.”
“Who?”
“A man named Marcus.”
There.
Marcus Vale.
Still active.
Still close enough to enter my house.
I stood.
Evelyn grabbed my wrist.
Immediately, her face changed as though she regretted touching me.
I stopped.
“What?”
“Don’t call him from inside the estate.”
I stared.
“He still has people here.”
That explained too much.
“How many?”
“I don’t know.”
“Security?”
“Yes.”
“Staff?”
“Maybe.”
“What did you hear?”
She swallowed.
“People use your name.”
Of course.
Always my name.
Raffaele approved.
Raffaele wants it moved.
Raffaele doesn’t need to know.
Authority borrowed becomes camouflage.
Evelyn continued.
“They kept telling me you knew I was alive.”
My chest tightened.
“You believed them?”
“At first, no.”
“And later?”
Her eyes filled.
“They knew things only you should have known.”
Private arguments.
Words from our engagement.
Things I said in rooms I believed were secure.
Someone around me had been feeding Bianca enough truth to make her lies convincing.
May you like
The prison was not only under the floor.
It had been built inside my own voice.
