"Rose, you... you're reborn too, aren't you?"
My hand froze mid-pour. I looked up at him.
It made sense, though. From the moment I'd bolted on our wedding night, my behavior had been nothing like my previous life. It wasn't surprising he'd figured it out.
"So what if I am?"
I set the glass on the table. It landed with a deliberate clink.
"What are you trying to say?"
Sylvester walked over and settled onto the sofa across from me. He continued without waiting for an invitation.
"Matriarch Farley never truly trusted the Henson family."
"You were too young and too capable. The resources and connections your family controlled made her uneasy. She was afraid that one day you'd slip beyond her control, maybe even turn around and threaten the Farleys. So from the very beginning, I was the bait she dangled."
He pulled a pocket watch from his jacket. It was old, silver, simple in design, its surface etched with fine scratches.
"This belonged to my birth mother. She was an ordinary woman, a secretary for Matriarch Farley. She was eventually moved to a care facility on the outskirts of the city. The official story was that she'd passed away from illness."
"Matriarch Farley holds her over my head. If I don't do exactly as she says, my mother has an 'accident.'"
"She arranged our marriage as a trap."
"Lucy Stephens was part of the plan too. Matriarch Farley knew Lucy was ambitious. She deliberately gave her access to sensitive information, nudged her along behind the scenes. Lucy was meant to be a pawn, a check against you and the Hensons."
"She had me act like I still carried a torch for Lucy. That was calculated too. She wanted to provoke you into making mistakes."
"Her original plan was to wait until jealousy or something else pushed you into acting irrationally, or until the Henson family showed any sign of stepping out of line. Then she'd have justification to rally the other families and carve up everything the Hensons owned."
"But she didn't anticipate that Lucy's appetite was far bigger than she'd estimated, and completely beyond her control. You saw how that ended."
I sank back into the sofa. The glass nearly slipped from my fingers.
My mind went blank.
Scenes from my previous life played back one by one.
He didn't choose not to love me. Matriarch Farley had been holding his mother's life over his head the entire time?
Matriarch Farley was the one pulling the strings all along. And our family, and me... in my last life, I'd thrown everything away, my very life, all because of her scheme?
I thought back to what Grandma had told me in the car yesterday.
"Grandma, are you serious? You want to strike out on your own, but you're handing over the most profitable projects?"
The old woman had laughed.
"Those projects? They're the meat hanging in the shop window. They're there so people feel comfortable. You think I'd put the real lifeline of this family on display for everyone to see?"
"And do you honestly think what's on the books is all I have?"
Every old-money dynasty had power hidden in the shadows, and the Hensons were no exception.
The investment network and concealed business empire Grandma had built in private dwarfed anything on the public ledger. If she wanted to, she could assemble a coalition powerful enough to make anyone think twice.
All this time, my own grandmother had been the biggest hidden player on the board.
But one thing still didn't add up. In my previous life, the Henson family had burned through everything to prop up the Farleys, and Grandma had never once deployed these resources.
It only took a moment's thought to understand why.
She loved me. I was her only granddaughter.
In my last life, I'd been willing to die for Sylvester Farley. I'd thrown myself into propping up the Farley family with everything I had, and so she'd quietly shelved her plans to build something of her own.
The realization sat heavy in my chest.
"Grandma..."
"Oh, for heaven's sake, are your eyes getting red? Pull yourself together!"
She swatted away the arm I'd tried to wrap around her.
"One question. Are you in, or are you out?"
"I'm in."
I snapped back to the present, looking at the man sitting across from me, every word he'd spoken dripping with sincerity.
His eyes were rimmed red, and he looked utterly wounded.
In my past life, I would have caved immediately, thrown my arms around him, and told him it was okay, that we'd face it together.
But this time around...
I smiled.
