Chapter 1
Alaric did not demand an answer from Elowen on the staircase.
Everything in him wanted one.
He wanted to know what she found.
Where she found it.
Why she looked terrified when Seraphine mentioned it.
Instead, he picked his daughter up again.
“We’re going downstairs.”
Elowen did not protest.
Seraphine touched the side of her face where Alaric had struck her.
“You don’t want to know what your perfect daughter has been doing?”
Alaric stopped.
He did not turn around.
“I want you away from her.”
“She went through your private things.”
Alaric continued walking.
“Then I’ll deal with that after I know she’s safe.”
That answer seemed to anger Seraphine more than the slap.
Alaric carried Elowen into the library and locked the door behind them.
His longtime house manager, Marjorie Wells, arrived moments later.
“She needs a doctor?”
“She didn’t hit the stairs.”
Marjorie crouched in front of Elowen.
“Anything hurt?”
Elowen shook her head.
She was physically unharmed.
Her hands still trembled.
Alaric sat several feet away.
Not directly in front of her.
He had learned after Elowen’s mother died that children sometimes spoke more freely when adults stopped looking like interrogators.
“Sweetheart.”
Elowen stared at the carpet.
“Seraphine said you found something in my bedroom.”
Silence.
“You’re not in trouble for looking.”
Elowen’s chin began trembling.
“Even if I wasn’t supposed to?”
“Even then.”
She finally looked at him.
“You’re sending me away.”
Alaric froze.
“What?”
Her eyes filled.
“I saw the papers.”
“What papers?”
“The school.”
Alaric slowly stood.
“What school?”
Elowen began crying.
“The one where bad kids live.”
Alaric’s confusion was genuine.
She saw that.
For the first time, some of the fear in her expression changed.
“Seraphine said you signed it.”
Alaric crouched again.
“I didn’t sign anything to send you anywhere.”
“She said you did.”
“What did you see?”
Elowen wiped her face.
“A folder.”
“In my bedroom?”
She nodded.
“Where?”
“Your desk drawer.”
That bothered him immediately.
Alaric’s bedroom desk held personal correspondence.
Nothing related to Elowen’s schooling.
He had never considered residential education.
Never discussed it.
Never requested information.
“Is the folder still there?”
Elowen shook her head.
“Seraphine took it.”
“When?”
“Yesterday.”
Alaric’s jaw tightened.
“Why were you looking in the drawer?”
Elowen’s eyes dropped again.
“I was finding Mommy’s necklace.”
He stopped.
Her late mother’s small gold necklace was kept in a velvet case inside that drawer.
Alaric had promised Elowen she could wear it at a school recital.
She had gone looking for it herself.
Instead, she found papers carrying her name.
And apparently his signature.
Alaric looked toward the locked library door.
The staircase incident had begun to look different.
May you like
Seraphine had not shoved Elowen because the child misbehaved.
Something in that bedroom folder had made Elowen dangerous to her.
