Chapter 1
“Everyone who isn’t involved, get out of here. Now.”
My voice hit the banquet room harder than the copper pot had hit the serving cart.
Nobody argued.
Guests moved toward the doors. Men who normally needed three explanations before leaving a room suddenly understood the first one. Within seconds, only my guards, Agatha, Maren, Sienna, and several visibly frightened household employees remained.
I wrapped my jacket tighter around Maren.
She was shivering.
Not from cold.
Sienna clung to my neck with both arms.
“Daddy…”
“I’m here.”
Her face disappeared against my shoulder.
Agatha pushed herself upright between broken plates.
“You’ve embarrassed this family enough.”
I stared at her.
My mother had been saying versions of that sentence since I was a boy.
Never I hurt someone.
Always you embarrassed us by reacting.
I looked down at Maren’s hands.
“How long?”
She immediately shook her head.
“Ronan—”
“How long have you been washing like this?”
Her eyes moved toward Agatha.
There.
Fear.
My wife was afraid to answer me in front of my mother.
Sienna answered instead.
“Grandma makes Mommy work when you leave.”
My jaw tightened.
“How often?”
Sienna sniffed.
“Every time.”
Maren closed her eyes.
Agatha laughed bitterly.
“She exaggerates.”
Sienna pulled away from my shoulder and stared at her.
“No!”
The force in my daughter’s voice silenced everyone.
Then she looked at me.
“Grandma did worse.”
I crouched slightly while still holding her.
“What worse?”
Sienna’s face changed.
She looked at Maren.
Maren whispered:
“Please.”
Not to Sienna.
To me.
May you like
Asking me not to dig deeper.
That was when I knew whatever I had walked into was only the surface.
