Chapter 4
The second object was a key.
Diane admitted that only after I threatened to tear apart every wall beneath the estate until I found whatever she had been searching for.
“A brass key,” she said.
Marcus turned toward her.
“You said it was another token.”
Her expression hardened.
“I told you what you needed to know.”
That was the first fracture.
I watched my brother realize he had helped starve a child without even knowing what he was supposed to recover.
It did not make him less guilty.
It made him easier to use.
I looked at Diane.
“What does the key open?”
She smiled faintly. “If I knew that, do you think we’d still be looking?”
Robert muttered, “Enough.”
My mother turned on him.
“No. She wants truth? Let her hear what happens when the person running this organization refuses to see what everyone else sees.”
I almost laughed.
“What am I refusing to see?”
“That you’re losing the western crews.”
I stared at her.
That was news.
Not because it was true.
Because I knew my western captains personally. None had shown movement.
Robert looked away.
There.
Another lie.
I stepped closer to Diane.
“Mercer isn’t taking my western crews.”
Silence.
“He’s being invited.”
Marcus swore quietly.
My mother’s face changed.
I continued.
“You created the threat.”
Robert finally stood. “No.”
“Then tell me why his token is beneath my house.”
He looked tired.
For the first time that day, tired enough to speak honestly.
“Conrad offered support.”
“For what?”
No answer.
I looked at Marcus.
His expression had gone blank.
He knew now.
Or suspected.
“Support for you?”
Marcus did not answer.
Diane did.
“You should never have been made head of this family before him.”
There it was.
Not security.
Not western pressure.
Succession.
I had taken control three years earlier after proving I could hold Armstrong territory through two internal splits Marcus helped create.
My parents said they accepted it.
Apparently acceptance had only meant waiting.
Diane continued.
“Marcus is the eldest.”
“He is also the man who attacked me while I was carrying my unconscious daughter.”
“He reacted.”
“No.”
I looked at Marcus.
“He obeyed.”
That hit.
My brother’s face tightened.
Then Robert said something none of us expected.
“Marcus was never supposed to replace you.”
Diane turned toward him.
Marcus did too.
I slowly looked at my father.
“Then who was?”
May you like
Robert stared at Amelia’s empty pool.
And refused to answer.
