Chapter 5 - WHAT THE WIVES LEFT BEHIND
Dominic sat down.
Not because Cassian told him to.
Because for the first time, he looked tired.
“Marisol came to me.”
Cassian held the bracelet.
“So did Rebecca.”
“Yes.”
“Did all of them?”
Dominic looked away.
That was answer enough.
Cassian’s jaw tightened.
I thought he would threaten him.
Instead, he said, “Why didn’t they come to me?”
Dominic gave a humorless laugh.
“Because you made it impossible.”
Cassian went very still.
Dominic leaned back.
“You want to make me the villain? Fine. But don’t rewrite yourself as an innocent man.”
Margaret shifted uneasily.
I didn’t.
Cassian had asked for truth.
Now he was getting some.
Dominic pointed toward the walls around us.
“You married women you barely knew because businesses needed protection. Then you expected them to understand this house, these men, your rules, your silence.”
“I never threatened them.”
“No. You simply never explained anything.”
Cassian looked down.
Dominic continued.
“Celeste cried for three weeks after your first marriage. You slept in another wing because you thought giving her space was kindness.”
Cassian said nothing.
“You never asked what she needed.”
“That does not explain Marisol’s bracelet.”
“No.”
Dominic rubbed his thumb across the edge of the desk.
“Marisol came to me because she wanted to leave. I helped her.”
“Why keep the bracelet?”
“She gave it to me.”
“And why send me another?”
“Because she knew you would ask questions if nothing arrived.”
That was terrible.
But believable.
Cassian knew it too.
I watched doubt enter his face.
Dominic saw it.
He leaned into it.
“The women weren’t prisoners. They were unhappy.”
“What about Rebecca?”
“Rebecca was frightened because she had heard every story about you before she entered the house.”
“Stories you encouraged?”
Dominic’s silence lasted too long.
Cassian stepped closer.
“Did you?”
“I protected you.”
“From what?”
“From becoming a man who chose a wife over everything his family built.”
There it was.
Not the whole answer.
But something real.
Cassian stared at him.
Dominic looked almost angry now.
“You think people follow you because they love you? They follow you because you are steady. Because you don’t let emotion make decisions.”
“Marriage is emotion?”
“Marriage changes men.”
“So you drove women away?”
“I helped women leave when they were already unhappy.”
I looked at Margaret.
She was trembling.
Not from Cassian.
From Dominic.
I pointed at her.
“Then why did you threaten the Aldridges?”
Dominic turned.
“I did not threaten them.”
“You told Margaret my mother would lose her cottage.”
“That was never said.”
Margaret stood.
“You told me there would be no employee protections if Evelyn broke the agreement.”
“That is different.”
“You told me Helen Carter’s cottage would be among the first assets reviewed.”
Dominic’s expression hardened.
“I explained possible consequences.”
“You knew exactly what I would hear.”
For the first time, Margaret sounded ashamed.
Dominic looked at Cassian.
“Fear makes people remember conversations incorrectly.”
I had heard enough.
I picked up Evelyn’s train ticket.
“What about this?”
Dominic glanced at it.
“What about it?”
“Evelyn planned to go to Rhinecliff three days ago. Rebecca’s sister used to live there. Rebecca is in the photograph with her.”
Dominic’s eyes flickered.
A tiny mistake.
I saw it.
Cassian did too.
“You know where Rebecca is,” I said.
“No.”
“Yes, you do.”
Dominic stood.
“You are a housekeeper who has known Cassian for one morning.”
“And you’re his best friend.”
I looked at the bracelet.
“So far, that doesn’t seem to mean much.”
Cassian’s mouth almost moved.
Not a smile.
Almost.
Dominic didn’t find it funny.
Cassian ordered one of his drivers to take us toward Rhinecliff.
Dominic was not invited.
Neither was Margaret.
We left them at the estate under guard.
Not imprisoned.
Simply unable to interfere.
During the drive, Cassian stared out the window.
After twenty minutes, I finally said, “He was right about one thing.”
Cassian turned.
“You’re emotionally constipated.”
His eyebrows rose.
“I was going to say you don’t ask enough questions.”
“That too.”
For the first time, he actually smiled.
It disappeared quickly.
“What if they really left because of me?”
“Then you listen.”
“And if Dominic manipulated them?”
“You listen anyway.”
He studied me.
“You make it sound simple.”
“It isn’t.”
I looked out at the gray river.
“But people like me don’t get to pretend painful things didn’t happen just because the truth is inconvenient.”
An hour later, we found Rebecca Holt.
Not because she was hiding.
Because the woman at a small riverside inn recognized her name from the photograph.
Rebecca was sitting beside a window with a cup of coffee untouched in front of her.
When Cassian entered, she stood so quickly the chair scraped the floor.
Her face went white.
He stopped ten feet away.
“I won’t come closer.”
Rebecca’s eyes filled.
Not with love.
Not exactly fear either.
Memory.
Then she saw me holding her bracelet.
“Where did you get that?”
“Evelyn’s coat.”
Rebecca closed her eyes.
“She made it back.”
“No.”
Her eyes opened.
“What?”
“She disappeared.”
Rebecca sat again.
For the next hour, she told us what happened.
Dominic had come to her three months into the marriage.
He said Cassian had grown tired of her questions.
He showed her the Saint Christopher medal.
He knew details no outsider could know.
He told her that if she embarrassed Cassian by leaving publicly, her sister’s mortgage would be called in and her father’s company ruined.
Rebecca believed him.
Then one night, Dominic told her Cassian wanted her removed before morning.
“I thought removed meant…”
She stopped.
Cassian closed his eyes.
Rebecca whispered, “I ran.”
She left without shoes because Dominic had told her the garage was watched.
“Why didn’t you ever call me?” Cassian asked.
Rebecca looked at him.
“Because Dominic answered your phone the first three times.”
Cassian’s face changed.
“And after that?”
“I was ashamed.”
She looked down.
“I thought if I had been wrong, you would hate me for believing him.”
Cassian sat across from her.
“I don’t.”
Rebecca cried then.
Quietly.
After a moment, she reached inside her purse.
“I have something else.”
She placed an old photograph on the table.
A younger woman stood near the back entrance of the Vale estate.
Cassian recognized her immediately.
“Celeste.”
His first wife.
Beside Celeste stood another woman wearing a gray work uniform.
My heart stopped.
I knew that face.
Older now.
Thinner.
But unmistakable.
“My mother.”
Rebecca nodded.
“Helen Carter.”
I stared at the photograph.
“What is my mother doing with Cassian’s first wife?”
Rebecca’s answer turned the entire story upside down again.
May you like
“Helping her leave.”
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