“Caleb’s not doing well. I need to go back to the hospital. Can you sign this travel clearance?”
He didn’t even glance at the forms. Just scrawled his signature with a flick of his pen and tossed it back.
“Go. Take care of your own son.”
I left before the sun had even dared to rise. The mansion sat silent behind me, cold as the stone floors, as if it were never a home.
...
The drive to my father’s estate took five hours. The gates rose taller than I remembered, black iron adorned with sharp spikes, guards standing like statues along the edges. Everything was perfectly ordered, perfectly still, but I had changed. I was thinner, worn raw in places no one would see, older in ways the mirrors could not show.
I stepped out of the car alone. No staff appeared. No one greeted me. The halls were empty, watching. Waiting.
And then I saw him.
My father. The man who had raised me in silence, with eyes sharper than knives and patience thinner than air.
“You,” he said. “Back after everything. After the choices that buried your life.”
I didn’t flinch. I didn’t cry. I had already done enough of that in Hugo’s empire.
“The arrangement you once offered me,” I said, voice steady, “is it still open?”
“No. That man… he’s married now. To someone who does not disgrace my name.”
He moved to close the door. I held my stare, and he froze, hand on the handle.
“But,” he continued slowly, “his younger brother is unmarried. Your sister was to marry him, but she put her ambitions first. You… if you are willing, the path is open.”
I didn’t question. I didn’t hesitate. I only nodded.
I would play the game, survive, and reclaim whatever I had left.
That night, they gave me a guest room. It smelled of dust and cold polish. Even the staff avoided my gaze. It was like I had died years ago and returned as a phantom.
That night, I was summoned.
The younger brother. The forgotten heir.
Valerian Lancaster.
He waited in the old observatory, draped in black, shadows cutting across his sharp features. I expected frailty, weakness. But he moved like a predator, deliberate, assessing me like prey.
“So,” he said quietly, “the runaway wife returns.”
I could not speak.
“Tell me,” his voice was low and dangerous, “did you come here seeking redemption or revenge?”
I bit my lip, keeping myself from trembling.
He chuckled softly, turned toward the window. Moonlight fell across the glass floor like silver knives.
“Go,” he said. “Return once your divorce is finalized.”
I wanted to argue. I wanted to say it wasn’t that simple. But the words lodged in my throat.
I left the room and returned to my empty quarters. No blankets, no pictures, no trace of who I had been. I sat on the edge of the bed, just breathing, trying to remember who I was before love ruined me.
...
I did not sleep.
Sun rose, but it brought no light. Just another layer of silence. My body moved automatically. Every motion a repetition since Caleb fell sick. Rest forgotten.
The estate halls were cold, sterile, alive with silence that dared no sound. I sat at the long dining table. Then the phone rang. Hugo’s name lit the screen.
I answered it.
“We’re leaving. Milo wants to try parasailing. Myra couldn’t refuse. You know how she is.” He laughed like it was a joke between us. “My parents are coming by later. Make sure everything is ready for them.”
“Alright.”
He hung up without another word. No mention of the date. No mention of Caleb.
Today was Caleb’s birthday.
I returned to the glass mansion. Each step echoed through the cold halls. My hands shook as I went straight to my room, the only part of this house that still held him.
I lit a small candle beside his photo and the blue urn that sat beneath it. His favorite dinosaur plush leaned against the wall as if waiting for him to return.
Caleb once begged me to go sailing. He had seen it in a cartoon and promised he’d wear his little “pirate socks” and fly over the sea. I remembered the sparkle in his eyes. Hugo had laughed, sharp and dismissive. Said it was too dangerous for a weak child. Said he’d get blown off the ropes. But now Milo got to go parasailing. And Caleb didn’t even have a birthday.
I stayed near the door, my hands trembling until I heard the gates beep. Then the front door swung open. Footsteps. The staff led them in like royalty.
Hugo’s parents.
I sank against the wall, silent. They didn’t smile. His mother’s eyes barely flicked toward me before wrinkling in disdain.
“Where’s the sick little boy? Dead, or still breathing?”
