Chapter 13
Daniel didn’t deny it.
That disappointed my father more than any lie.
“I was going to explain.”
Sebastian stared at him.
“When?”
Silence.
I stepped forward.
“Why Marcus?”
Daniel looked at me.
“Because I thought Sebastian was getting old.”
My father almost laughed.
Fifty-eight.
Apparently ancient to ambitious men.
Daniel continued.
“And Catherine?”
He looked at my scraped hands.
“I didn’t know they’d do this.”
I hated that sentence.
Not because it was false.
Because it implied there was a level of abuse he would have accepted.
“What did you think they would do?”
“Pressure you.”
“How?”
“Marriage.”
“Against my will?”
He said nothing.
There.
I looked at Marcus.
“Daniel gave you my identity.”
“Yes.”
“Security patterns?”
Daniel closed his eyes.
Marcus smiled.
“Yes.”
My father’s expression turned cold.
“What patterns?”
“Travel.”
“Doors.”
“House rotations.”
Not documents.
Not codes on paper.
Habits.
More dangerous.
Marcus continued:
“Enough to know when Catherine moved without protection.”
My chest tightened.
“Why?”
“Insurance.”
“Against?”
“You refusing Preston.”
Victoria looked at Marcus.
“So there was never a choice.”
He shrugged.
“There is always a choice.”
I laughed.
“Yes.”
He looked at me.
“You chose humiliation for weeks.”
“No.”
I stepped closer.
“I chose information.”
He smiled.
“Same thing.”
“No.”
I looked toward Daniel.
“You chose betrayal because you thought my father was weakening.”
Then Preston.
“You chose cruelty because you thought I was poor.”
Victoria.
“You chose humiliation because you thought servants existed beneath you.”
Tiffany.
“You chose to film because suffering entertained you.”
Finally Marcus.
“And you chose all of them because you thought other people’s ugliness would make you powerful.”
Silence.
My father looked at me.
Proud.
I almost resented it.
Not because I didn’t want his pride.
Because I had not earned this moment through suffering.
I had survived it.
Different thing.
Then Daniel said:
“There’s one more person.”
Marcus’s face changed.
I turned.
“Who?”
Daniel swallowed.
“Preston’s father.”
Victoria whispered:
“No.”
Preston went pale.
His father had supposedly died five years earlier.
Daniel looked at them.
May you like
“He’s alive.”
And Marcus had been taking orders from him the entire time.
