ung heavy, like it was waiting for something to fall or for s

apdoor. Beneath her, the cellar lay still. The records. The ledgers. Her brother

looked more tired than she'd

sure?"

odded

aimed to be him stood before the hearth, a decanter of bran

when this would

gor," Mira said

o denial. O

ried him under the family name. Under lies. I didn't want to inherit this place. I ran. I built another life. B

old the truth,"

old the staff I'd died of fever. I survived only because my nursemaid helped me es

oser. "Then why

. "Because your b

roze t

she wh

the records. Maybe a portrait. He approached me weeks before the fire. T

s jaw. "And the

aid the truth needed to be known. That the Thornwick name s

ghtened. "He st

e first." Aster turned toward her. "I believe Elias found out. Tomas ha

died," she said

The house burned, and I disappeared

e can expose it all. The letters. The cellar. The

me?" Aster asked. "Erase what

like steel. "It

etween them, h

. Publicly acknowledge what was done, without dragging innocent peop

er. "That prote

nds it. But without c

he first time, there was som

"The inheritance. The name. The ti

ncement appeared in t

Thornwick line, will be repurposed as

ssume title or fortune, and no f

of injustice done beneath its roof, with full access

e was

s were

ence. An

unds. The fog had finally lifted. For the first time in years, the ho

ver," L

her head. "

her. "What wi

archive everything. Tell the

"Then I'll

iled a

of running,

hrough the tall grass. Not as enemies. Not as ghosts. But as t

he names t