Chapter 3
We reached Willow House before midnight.
Althea did not come.
Her choice was no longer required.
Sabella sat beside me during the drive.
She barely spoke.
At one point she whispered:
“What if she doesn’t want to see me?”
I looked at her.
“What makes you think that?”
“She never contacted me.”
Six months of silence had already written its own story inside her.
Important.
“Let her answer that.”
The house stood behind trees with no visible guards.
No locked compound.
No dramatic prison.
That disturbed me more.
Control often looks ordinary from outside.
An older caretaker opened the door.
Saw Sabella.
Started crying.
There.
We found Elowen in a downstairs bedroom.
Sixty-two.
Smaller than the woman in Sabella’s staff photograph.
Silver hair freshly cut.
Same cardigan from the birthday picture folded across a chair.
Sabella stopped at the doorway.
“Mom?”
Elowen looked up.
Her face collapsed.
“Bella.”
Sabella crossed the room.
I stepped back.
No mafia boss belonged between them.
They held each other for several minutes.
No accusation yet.
Just relief.
Then Sabella pulled away.
“Why?”
Elowen immediately looked toward me.
Fear.
Not of me personally.
Of what my presence represented.
She asked:
“Is Althea here?”
“No.”
Her shoulders lowered.
Good.
Sabella sat beside her.
“Did she keep you here?”
Elowen hesitated.
“No locks.”
Not answer.
“Mom.”
Elowen looked at her daughter.
“She said you would lose everything if I left.”
There.
Sabella went still.
“What?”
“Your job.”
“A place to live.”
“Protection.”
Elowen began crying.
“She said Gareth trusted her. She said if I caused trouble, you would be thrown out before I could reach you.”
Sabella looked at me.
I felt anger move slowly through my chest.
Not because Elowen believed Althea.
Because she had reason to.
My house was intimidating.
My name worse.
Althea used both without ever needing chains.
Sabella whispered:
“What did you know?”
Elowen closed her eyes.
Then said:
“She was married before.”
I looked at her.
Sabella frowned.
Althea had told me she had never married.
May you like
Elowen continued.
“And the man she married is still alive.”
