Chapter 9
Black Cedar Lodge was empty when Cassandro’s men arrived.
Empty did not mean unused.
There was fresh firewood stacked beside the kitchen. Two cups sat in the drying rack. A blanket on the upstairs bed still smelled faintly of lavender soap.
Natalie had always used lavender.
Cassandro noticed that before the men around him did.
Then one of the bodyguards found drawings beneath the bed.
Three pages.
All Audrey.
One showed her beside the pool.
One showed her sleeping in Mrs. Keller’s arms.
The third showed Cassandro walking across the garden with Audrey on his shoulders.
The date was less than three weeks old.
Natalie had not only survived.
She had been close enough to watch them recently.
Cassandro returned to the estate after midnight and placed the drawings on the table in front of Vivienne.
She looked at them.
Then away.
“You knew,” he said.
“No.”
“You knew she survived Black Cedar.”
Vivienne crossed her arms.
“Maybe she did.”
“Where is she?”
“How would I know?”
Cassandro watched her for several seconds.
Then he placed the photograph of Damian and Gideon beside the drawings.
Vivienne’s face tightened.
“You think because my brother stood near an old lodge—”
“Stop.”
She did.
Cassandro leaned closer.
“You spent three years telling my daughter her mother walked away.”
Vivienne looked toward Audrey’s room.
“She needed to stop waiting.”
“You tried to make her call you mother.”
“I was raising her.”
“You were replacing someone you helped remove.”
Vivienne laughed bitterly.
“Natalie abandoned that child the moment she chose revenge over coming home.”
Cassandro’s eyes narrowed.
There.
Again.
Too much knowledge.
“What revenge?”
Vivienne stopped.
Mrs. Keller looked at her.
Cassandro continued.
“Natalie came back two months ago. You know she did.”
No answer.
“You know what she wants.”
Vivienne’s expression hardened.
“She wants to destroy everything.”
“What?”
“The family.”
“No.”
Cassandro shook his head.
“She wants to destroy you.”
Vivienne smiled.
“Same thing.”
That sentence told Cassandro exactly how she saw herself.
Not as his wife.
Not even as Audrey’s stepmother.
As part of the structure that expected to survive him.
Then Audrey cried from upstairs.
Cassandro turned instinctively.
Vivienne watched.
“There.”
“What?”
“She makes one sound and you leave the room.”
Cassandro looked at her.
“Yes.”
Vivienne almost smiled.
“That is why Natalie lost.”
Cassandro’s expression changed.
“No.”
May you like
He moved toward the stairs.
“That is why you will.”
