The Neglected Wife: Now Watch the Grove Roar

I gathered what li

study window, looking out at the dis

r softened by a deep sadness. He knew. H

He had tried to reason with Arthur, but his

"For what Arthur is doing.

ment. I had to

sapling, the first of the sacred grove, had offered their life force, a protective aura for the Beaumonts and their land, as long as the pact was honored. Generations of my family

y family served yours for generations. We guarded t

filled with a sorrow

A Beaumont saved my ancestor, and in return,

efully nurtured from a cone of The Patriarch.

"He has desecrated The Patriarch. He has destroy

ly. "He does not understand t

d, the words tasting like ash. "And

l take this. The last of The Patriar

enounces its role as guardians of the Beaumont

nleashing of consequences. He would see it as me abandoning them, perhaps even a malicious act against Evelyn, not grasping that I was