Chapter 6
Ismeralda insisted she did not order violence.
Predictable.
“I told Corwin to fix it.”
There it was.
A sentence powerful people use when they want consequence without ownership.
“What does fix mean?”
“He was supposed to talk to him.”
Corwin laughed.
Not because funny.
Because he had finally stopped protecting her.
“You told me he couldn’t be here when you announced the engagement.”
She turned toward him.
“Shut up.”
Good.
Truth separating allies.
I looked at Ismeralda.
“Our engagement wasn’t announced for another four months.”
She stared.
Exactly.
Planning had begun earlier.
Roland disliked Corwin.
More than that, he distrusted Ismeralda’s growing role inside my house.
If I became engaged, Roland would have investigated every Vane contract personally.
Corwin’s staged breaches would collapse.
So Ismeralda told him:
“Roland cannot be standing beside Dashiell when this becomes official.”
Her own words.
Not kill.
Remove.
Indefinitely.
Corwin handled interpretation.
He confronted Roland on the west staircase.
Two Vane men behind him.
They offered money.
Roland refused.
Threatened to tell me.
Then Corwin used Adelise.
At the time she was finishing hospitality training and struggling to find stable work.
Corwin told Roland:
“If you destroy Ismeralda, your daughter will never work in a Wyclare property again.”
Roland laughed.
Wrong threat.
He knew I would never punish Adelise for his report.
So Corwin escalated.
He showed Roland photographs of Adelise leaving her apartment.
Shopping.
Walking alone.
Nothing criminal.
Just proof she could be watched.
That changed everything.
Adelise went pale hearing it.
I looked at Corwin.
“You threatened his daughter.”
“I threatened nothing.”
“You showed him surveillance.”
Silence.
Same thing.
“What happened next?”
Corwin said Roland agreed to leave the estate for forty-eight hours while they “sorted things out.”
He entered a Vane vehicle voluntarily.
Because Adelise’s photograph sat on the dashboard.
They drove him to a training property in Wyoming.
No beating.
No chains initially.
Just isolation.
Then Roland escaped.
Corwin’s face tightened.
“After two days.”
I stared.
“Then where did he go?”
Corwin looked genuinely uncertain.
“I don’t know.”
Interesting.
May you like
The man I thought had died eighteen months ago had escaped after forty-eight hours.
Which meant the rest of his disappearance had been his own decision.
