Chapter 6
Rowan’s role was uglier than I expected.
She knew exactly what Elias wanted.
And she wanted Tyler chosen.
Not because she hated Noah.
Because she believed my position had stolen something from her branch of the family.
“You got everything.”
I stared at her.
“What?”
“Dad trained you.”
“He controlled me.”
“He gave you access.”
“He denied you?”
Her face changed.
There.
Old wound.
Elias never trained Rowan for leadership.
He called her emotional.
Soft.
Better suited to marriage and family diplomacy.
Then I proved him wrong by becoming the one thing he told both daughters women should not become.
Rowan’s resentment was not born when Noah was.
It was decades old.
“You thought Tyler could get the future you never got.”
She started crying.
“Yes.”
Finally.
Honest.
That did not excuse anything.
But it explained why she watched her son humiliate mine and called it training.
She had turned Tyler into a second attempt at her own childhood.
I looked at her.
“You used him.”
Her face crumpled.
“I wanted him to have a chance.”
“At what?”
Silence.
I leaned closer.
“At beating a four-year-old?”
May you like
She looked away.
Sometimes ambition looks pathetic when stated accurately.
