Chapter 10
Camille left the north cottage when Mariana was eight.
Evelyn helped her.
Beatrice knew nothing.
Richard knew nothing.
For the first time in years, Camille chose something without permission.
“Where did she go?” I asked.
Evelyn shook her head.
“I drove her to an old Vance chapel twenty miles north. She said someone would meet her.”
“Who?”
“She wouldn’t tell me.”
Mariana looked at her.
“Did she ask for me?”
Evelyn’s expression broke.
“Yes.”
That answer hurt more than any uncertainty.
“She wanted to take you.”
“Why didn’t she?”
“Because you were sleeping at the main house and Beatrice had moved Sebastian’s friends into the guest rooms. Too many eyes.”
Beatrice scoffed.
“How convenient.”
Evelyn turned.
“You had already threatened to send Mariana away if Camille tried.”
Mariana stared at Beatrice.
“To where?”
“A work household in Chicago.”
Beatrice shrugged.
“You were old enough to be useful.”
Eight.
She was talking about an eight-year-old.
I felt my hands close.
Mariana saw.
She surprised me by touching my sleeve.
Not asking me to forgive.
Asking me not to let rage become the only thing in the room.
Camille had already lost too many years to other people’s anger.
I listened.
Evelyn continued.
Camille reached the chapel.
Someone met her.
Evelyn saw a black Vance sedan arrive before she left.
My heart tightened.
“One of ours.”
“Yes.”
I turned toward Rafe.
He was already thinking.
Twenty-five years ago, only a handful of people could use unmarked Vance sedans without my approval.
My father’s old captains.
One name rose immediately.
Vincent Moretti.
My father’s closest adviser after Camille vanished.
Dead twelve years now.
I remembered him telling me repeatedly that Camille had probably left the country.
He had been the man who convinced me to stop searching the Sterling properties because “Richard would never betray an oath.”
I laughed once.
The sound frightened Sebastian.
Good.
Mariana looked at me.
“What happened after the car came?”
Evelyn shook her head.
“I never saw Camille again.”
Not proof of death.
Not proof of life.
Only another stolen ending.
Then Rafe brought me one of the newly recovered letters.
It had never been opened.
Addressed to me.
Dated six months after Camille supposedly vanished from the cottage.
My sister had escaped.
May you like
And she had written to me after.
Someone inside the Vance family had made sure I never received it.
