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