Chapter 4
The east room had another door.
Hidden behind rotting paneling.
I found it because Charlotte remembered a draft.
Three years old.
Adults overlook small things.
Children live inside them.
Cold.
Sounds.
Darkness.
The narrow door opened into a stone passage running beneath the east gallery.
Fresh footprints crossed the dust.
One set.
Large.
Male.
Marcus laughed behind me.
“You going to ask the floor to testify?”
I looked back.
He was still under guard.
Isabella beside him.
“No.”
I pointed down the tunnel.
“I'll ask who you invited.”
Isabella rolled her eyes.
“You really think I control every old corridor in your house?”
“You had the key.”
“Because Vivian gave it to me.”
I stopped.
“What?”
Her face changed.
She had said it too quickly.
“Vivian gave you the brass key.”
“Yes.”
“When?”
Silence.
Marcus whispered:
“Isabella.”
She ignored him.
“Before she died.”
“Why?”
“She trusted me.”
I almost laughed.
“Then why did you hide it?”
Isabella's expression sharpened.
“She changed.”
“Into?”
“Suspicious.”
I stared.
“Of you.”
Her jaw tightened.
“She became obsessive.”
Marcus added:
“After Charlotte was born.”
I looked at him.
He smiled.
“Motherhood made her unstable.”
There it was.
The familiar insult.
A woman protects her child.
Men call it instability.
I stepped closer.
“What was she afraid of?”
Marcus said nothing.
I returned to the letters.
Another one.
William,
Isabella keeps asking why you closed the river route.
She says Marcus can reopen it without you if enough capos agree.
My eyes lifted.
Marcus's face had gone still.
The river route.
Old Sterling tunnels extending beyond the estate toward the warehouses.
I sealed them six years earlier.
Too close to the home.
Too easy to use against families living here.
Marcus hated that decision.
“You wanted the route.”
He shrugged.
“It made money.”
“It got people killed.”
“That's the world.”
“No.”
I looked toward the stairs.
“That's the world you choose.”
His smile disappeared.
Isabella laughed.
“There it is.”
“What?”
“Father William.”
Her voice became mocking.
“Everything became children and safety after Charlotte.”
I stared.
She smiled.
“Vivian ruined you first.”
My hands tightened.
“She was afraid of shadows.”
“No.”
“She cried about corridors.”
“No.”
“She begged you to close routes.”
“Yes.”
Isabella rolled her eyes.
“And you obeyed.”
I stepped closer.
“I listened.”
“To weakness.”
“Interesting.”
“What?”
“You needed me not to.”
Her smile faded.
I looked at Marcus.
“You needed the route open.”
Then Isabella.
“And Vivian kept convincing me to close it.”
Silence.
The shape was becoming clearer.
Not murder yet.
Motive.
Pressure.
I asked:
“What happened at the lake house?”
Marcus laughed.
“You already know.”
“My wife died in a fire.”
“Yes.”
“Why were you there?”
“I wasn't.”
I held up Vivian's letter.
He shrugged.
“Then she was wrong.”
I looked at Isabella.
“You?”
She smiled coldly.
“I visited.”
“When?”
“Earlier.”
“Before the fire?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To talk sense into her.”
“What did you discuss?”
Isabella's face changed.
“Your daughter.”
My stomach tightened.
“What about Charlotte?”
“Vivian wanted to take her away.”
I went still.
“Where?”
“Anywhere you couldn't find them.”
I stared.
Isabella smiled.
“You didn't know?”
No.
I didn't.
She continued.
“Your perfect wife was planning to run with your child.”
Marcus laughed.
“Still want to read every letter?”
I looked down.
Another page waited.
My name.
Vivian's handwriting.
I opened it.
William,
If I leave with Charlotte, it is not because I am leaving you.
It's because someone inside your family has started using her to control me.
I looked at Marcus.
Then Isabella.
May you like
Two years earlier—
someone had already been using my daughter as leverage.
