His Betrayal Funded My Revenge

etched before h

iling along the wall for balance. Her ribs sang with every movement,

ther's

, his body cooling in a study that smelled of gunpowder and bourbon, his brains o

top of the sta

on the marble floor. She could leave. She could walk down these stairs and out the door

e didn

boards, through the walls, the word that had

heir

rying through the vent system or

ires... before

io, cold and f

kn

Not "we're grieving.

kn

had been a failed acquisition, a write-off, a l

re something had lived and moved and died. She could still

llway

id down it, her legs folding beneath her. The impact sent a fresh wave of pain

the cavernous silence of the

om door f

's t

ice, sharp w

, silhouetted against the light from Eleanor's room. Tall,

saw

he professional mask cracking,

iga

ing hard, as if she could hold something in, as if she could stop

ail,

low motion, his long stride eating the di

flin

t her mind tried to forget: the hospital, the hands on her, the way they'd held h

th

r th

rds came out as a whispe

mell, airport and exhaustion and somet

r face, near the bandage that had slipped,

ting the wall. "You weren't there. You were never there.

cracked. "Stop. You

e bedroom, imperious, annoyed. "Wh

saw him caught between them, the old woman

h, fast, the mask sl

s steady, dismissive. "A servant dro

His eyes were flat, cold,

ured, too low for Eleanor t

landed l

man she'd married, this stranger she'd tried to

he stepped over the imagined shards of her life, over t

t look at

the banister, the other pressed against

ay something to Eleanor. Sh

ept w

-