Chapter 5
Althea did not threaten Elowen directly.
That was too crude.
She described consequences.
If Elowen returned to the city and spoke, the engagement would explode.
Gareth Wynthall would feel deceived.
He would remove everyone connected to the humiliation.
Sabella included.
False.
But believable enough to a woman outside my world.
Then Althea showed Elowen photographs of Sabella at the mansion.
Working.
Smiling sometimes.
Carrying trays.
“She said you were finally stable.”
Elowen looked at her daughter.
“I thought you needed the job.”
Sabella cried.
“I needed you.”
That sentence ended the explanation for several minutes.
Then Elowen revealed something worse.
She had tried leaving twice.
The first time, a driver told her Sabella had been dismissed that morning because of “family complications.”
Elowen panicked.
Returned to Willow House.
Two days later, Althea showed her a photograph of Sabella still working.
Claimed she had personally persuaded me to rehire her.
A rescue that never happened.
Second attempt?
Althea called Elowen from the road.
Crying.
Said Sabella had been accused of taking jewelry from a guest.
Another lie.
Return immediately and Althea would fix it.
Elowen returned.
The accusation disappeared.
A perfect system.
Every movement toward freedom seemed to hurt her daughter.
So Elowen stopped moving.
Sabella looked at me.
“You never knew?”
“No.”
She believed me.
Still hurt.
Both could exist.
Then I asked about yesterday.
Why bring Elowen to my mansion?
Her face changed.
Althea had arrived at Willow House three days earlier with a proposal.
The wedding date was approaching.
Sabella had recently begun asking more questions about her mother.
Althea wanted the problem closed.
She planned to record a message.
Elowen would sit in a beautiful room.
Look healthy.
Say she had left voluntarily.
Say she needed distance from Sabella.
Say nobody should search.
Elowen refused.
So Althea brought her into my mansion yesterday to prove how close she could come without Sabella reaching her.
Psychological pressure.
Look.
Your daughter works one corridor away.
Cooperate and maybe I let you see her.
Elowen still refused.
Althea took the photograph anyway.
Then tonight, in a fit of cruelty, she placed that very photograph beside a birthday cake.
May you like
Not realizing the fresh wallpaper behind Elowen would expose when it had been taken.
Arrogance destroyed six months of control in one frame.
