And there are moments when anger simply dies.

Evelyn’s did.

She looked at Beatrice and felt something colder.

Distance.

“I want you off my land.”

Grace gasped.

Beatrice lifted her head.

“Evelyn.”

“You can take whatever personal belongings are yours. You can take money enough to settle somewhere else.”

“This is my home.”

Evelyn looked around the dining room.

“So was that chair.”

Beatrice flinched.

“I gave you twenty-seven years.”

Evelyn’s voice remained steady.

“And I spent most of them trying to earn love you had already decided I didn’t deserve.”

Beatrice began to speak.

Evelyn raised one hand.

“No more.”

The words were quiet.

Absolute.

“You taught me to live without taking up space. I’m finished learning that lesson.”

Beatrice left the room.

No one stopped her.

One by one, the guests followed.

Some approached Evelyn before leaving.

Others seemed too ashamed.

Within half an hour, the grand engagement celebration had emptied until only four people remained.

Evelyn.

Grace.

James.

And the ruined feast.

Grace stood beside the table twisting her hands.

“I’m sorry.”

Evelyn looked at her.

“For what?”

“For being blind.”

“You were young.”

“I’m twenty-one.”

“You were protected.”

“That isn’t the same as innocent.”

Evelyn said nothing.

Grace stepped closer.

“When Mother gave you that apron tonight, I nearly said something.”

“Why didn’t you?”

Grace’s eyes filled.

“Because I was afraid if I objected, Victor would think our family was strange.”

Evelyn gave a humorless laugh.

Grace almost laughed too.

Then she began crying.

“I’m so sorry.”

Evelyn looked at the sister she had spent years believing was the reason she was loved less.

And suddenly she saw something different.

Grace had been favored.

Protected.

Spoiled.

But she had also been shaped by the same woman.

In a different cage.

Evelyn opened her arms.

Grace collapsed into them.

The sisters held each other in the middle of the ruined engagement feast.

After a long while Evelyn whispered, “How did you know James would come?”

Grace stopped crying.

James became suspiciously interested in the window.

Evelyn looked from one to the other.

“What?”

Grace stepped backward.

“I wrote to him.”

Evelyn blinked.

“You?”

James turned.

Grace nodded.

“Three months ago.”

“Why?”

“After I found Victor’s letter, I searched Mother’s desk.”

Grace glanced toward the staircase.

“There was a locked drawer.”

Evelyn remembered that drawer.

She had been forbidden to touch it since childhood.

“I found letters addressed to you. Most were from Samuel Mercer.”

James nodded.

Grace continued.

“They mentioned the trust. I didn’t understand everything, so I wrote James.”

Evelyn stared at him.

“You knew before tonight?”

“Some.”

“How much?”

“That my father had documents concerning property belonging to you.”

“And you attended an engagement party to deliver them?”

James hesitated.

Grace’s lips twitched.

“Oh, that isn’t why he attended the party.”

James gave her a warning look.

“Grace.”

Evelyn folded her arms.

“Now I definitely want to know.”

Grace actually smiled.

“I told him the celebration would be the one occasion Mother couldn’t prevent him from entering the house without making a public scene.”

James sighed.

“That part is true.”

“But,” Grace continued, “he could have delivered the papers through an attorney.”

Evelyn looked at James.

“Then why didn’t you?”

The tall rancher who had faced Victor without blinking suddenly appeared uncomfortable.

“I had another reason.”