Chapter 3
Cassandra arrived twenty minutes later.
She had been upstairs changing after wine spilled on her dress.
Perfect timing for Tobias.
Keep the wife away while the stage is prepared.
She entered angry because Rafe had told her only one thing:
Your husband put his hands on Ansel.
Then she saw Tobias.
“What did you do?”
He stood.
“Cass—”
“No.”
My sister was forty-two and had inherited our mother’s ability to turn one syllable into a closed door.
She came directly to me.
“Ansel?”
“Safe.”
“Hurt?”
“His cheek is red. Nothing serious.”
Her face changed.
“Tobias.”
He raised both hands.
“He ignored me.”
Cassandra stared.
“He wears hearing aids.”
“He was being disrespectful.”
“No.”
Her voice became quieter.
“You removed his hearing aids, then punished him for not responding.”
Tobias said nothing.
She understood immediately.
Then I asked:
“Were you planning to leave Westbrook tonight?”
Cassandra turned toward me.
“What?”
Tobias closed his eyes.
Perfect.
I repeated it.
Malcolm explained the planned statement.
Cassandra listened without moving.
Then she looked at her husband.
“You told people I was leaving my brother?”
“Not leaving him.”
“Then use words I understand.”
Tobias tried.
Separate family identity.
Restored Carrow authority.
Independent crews.
Equal table.
Every phrase made Cassandra colder.
Finally she asked:
“When were you planning to tell me?”
“Before dessert.”
She laughed.
No humor.
“You built a rebellion around me and planned to tell me between dinner and cake.”
“It isn’t a rebellion.”
“Then why didn’t I know?”
No answer.
There it was.
My sister turned toward Malcolm.
“Did you think I agreed?”
He looked ashamed.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Tobias said—”
She raised one hand.
“I asked why you believed him instead of asking me.”
Malcolm had no answer.
Then Cassandra looked around the ballroom.
“How many?”
Five people lowered their eyes.
Five.
Not six.
One person was missing.
Tobias noticed too.
His face tightened.
Cassandra followed his gaze toward an empty chair near the west wall.
“Who was supposed to sit there?”
Malcolm answered.
“Daniel Carrow.”
Cassandra stopped breathing.
Daniel was Tobias’s younger brother.
He had supposedly left Chicago six years earlier after refusing family life completely.
May you like
Apparently he had not left the plan.
He had been building it from somewhere else.
