single loss, but three, a cascade of grief that hollowed me out completely. My three best apprentice

right. I locked myself away in my large, empty house, the silence a constant reminder of the laughter and life that us

was old age, but I knew the truth. It was grief. The loss of the apprentices he had helped me choose

long time to l

d in one of the junior apprentice rooms, a space I hadn't entered since they'd cleaned it out.

sharp and familiar, cut through the silence of the house. It was a soun

el

pound, a frantic, painful rhythm against my ribs. It couldn't be.

ophia. My other two 'dead' apprentices.

Olivia was saying, her voice dripping with a kind of f

ompletely broken. A man in that state is easy to control. And look, it worked perfectly. He's a recl

ear against the wood of the door

n there with them. "You marry him, get your name on ever

ssociates, I'll divorce him for 'irreconcilable differences.' Poor Ethan, so damaged by the trauma of my 'death' he

t with nothing. After all the years he spent 'mentorin

ut. They hadn't died in a tragic accident. They had faked their deaths. They had let me grieve, let Mr. D

tence, it was all based on a lie. A cruel, elaborate, and vicious lie. For five years, I had been a puppet, my strings pulled

A cold, clear rage that burned away the fog of sorrow. They thought I was

were

. They wanted to build their f

er echoing from behind the closed door. They would never get i

office, my steps steady and certain for the first time in five years. I picked