Chapter 1
“Whose child was here before mine?”
Walter’s smile disappeared.
Gordon stared at the little shoe in my hand.
Neither answered.
That told me it mattered.
Jonah and Elsie stood between my two bodyguards near the pavilion entrance. My son had one arm wrapped around his sister while she buried her face against his shoulder.
Four and three.
Already behaving like survivors.
I hated that word anywhere near them.
I looked at the shoe again.
Small.
Brown leather.
Worn at the toe.
A stitched blue star on one side.
Not expensive.
Not from our household.
I crouched beside the cupboard.
Under the folded blanket, I found scratches in the wood.
Not random.
Lines.
Groups of five.
Someone had been counting days.
My stomach turned.
Gordon finally spoke.
“That was before your children.”
I rose slowly.
“So there was a child.”
He looked away.
Walter said:
“Families come through here.”
“Which families?”
No answer.
Then Jonah whispered:
“Mom…”
I turned.
He pointed toward the cupboard.
“There’s writing.”
He had seen what I missed.
Behind the open door, low enough for a child to reach, someone had carved three letters.
M.M.C.
And beneath them:
DON’T PICK ME AGAIN.
Everything inside me went cold.
I looked at Gordon.
“You made children choose.”
Walter sighed as if I were being difficult.
“It teaches loyalty.”
I stared at him.
“To whom?”
He shrugged.
“Family.”
No.
Not family.
Fear.
I stepped closer.
“Who is M.M.C.?”
Neither answered.
Then Gordon made the mistake of glancing toward the main estate.
Not the gate.
Not the road.
The west guest wing.
I followed his eyes.
One of my bodyguards noticed too.
I said:
“Search every room Walter and Gordon have used this summer.”
Walter snapped:
“Viviana—”
I turned.
He stopped.
The secret head of Cross had been useful for years.
People behaved differently when they thought my authority was smaller than it was.
Tonight, that advantage was over.
May you like
Because somewhere inside my estate, a frightened child had carved a warning into wood.
And Gordon already knew exactly where I should not look.
