Chapter 12
Daniel Cross had protected my father for fifteen years.
He was in the photograph with Marcus.
The date was six weeks earlier.
I stared at it.
Sebastian’s face changed.
Not shock.
Pain.
That was worse.
“When?”
I asked George.
“Private Caldwell club.”
“Why was Daniel there?”
Marcus smiled.
Finally something he thought gave him control.
“Ask your father.”
I did.
Sebastian shook his head.
“I didn’t send him.”
My stomach tightened.
Marcus leaned back.
“Powerful houses always rot from inside.”
I ignored him.
“Where is Daniel now?”
One bodyguard answered.
“On the estate.”
My father reached for his phone.
I stopped him.
“No.”
He looked at me.
“I want him here.”
Marcus smiled.
“Good.”
That made me reconsider.
Why did he want Daniel in the room?
Tiffany whispered:
“Because Daniel knows who Catherine is.”
Silence.
I turned.
She swallowed.
“He told Marcus.”
My father’s face went still.
Marcus closed his eyes.
Too late.
“You learned my identity from Daniel.”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Two months ago.”
Everything rearranged.
Marcus had not merely suspected.
He knew before today.
Preston stared at him.
“What?”
Victoria looked shocked too.
Good.
Secrets inside secrets.
Marcus had withheld my identity from his own family.
I stepped closer.
“Why let them abuse me?”
He smiled thinly.
“To see what you would tolerate.”
My hands curled.
“A test.”
“Yes.”
“And if I broke?”
“You weren’t worthy.”
There it was.
He had treated weeks of abuse like an audition for my own inheritance.
Preston turned on him.
“You knew?”
Marcus ignored him.
Victoria shouted:
“You let me slap Sebastian Pembroke’s daughter?”
Marcus looked at her.
“You chose to.”
For once, he was right.
She had.
No one forced Victoria.
No one forced Preston.
Knowing I was powerful would only have changed whom they were willing to hurt.
I looked at Marcus.
“What did Daniel get?”
“Future position.”
“With whom?”
Marcus smiled.
“Me.”
Then the ballroom doors opened.
Daniel Cross entered.
He saw the photograph in my hand.
Stopped.
And behind him stood two Pembroke guards—
May you like
both aiming their weapons at him.
My father’s most trusted man had already been caught trying to leave.
