CHAPTER 14
Seraphina
I found the old greenhouse today. Hidden behind the west gardens, overgrown vines swallowing cracked glass panes. No one uses it anymore. It felt like a secret that belonged to no one.
Inside, dust floated in beams of late afternoon light. Dead plants in ceramic pots. Rusted watering cans. The air smelled faintly of soil and neglect.
For the first time since arriving here, I felt alone.
Not watched.
Not studied.
Just… still.
I sat on the stone ledge and let myself think about my father. He wasn’t perfect but he wasn’t a monster.
Was he?
The ledgers say yes.
Lucien says yes.
But memory is complicated.
He used to bring me here when I was younger. Before the estate was fully under Syndicate control. Before business swallowed him whole.
“Everything powerful starts small,” he once told me, handing me a seedling.
I didn’t realize at the time he meant power the way Lucien understands it. Footsteps approached on gravel outside.
Of course. He never truly leaves me unguarded.
“You’re not hard to find,” Lucien said quietly, stepping inside.
“This place used to matter.”
“I know.”
That surprised me.
“You remember?”
“I know everything that happens on my property.”
It shouldn’t have sounded possessive but it did. He walked further inside, glass crunching faintly under his shoes.
“I increased security today,” he said casually.
“Why?”
“Because Belladonna is moving.”
Cold slid down my spine.
“And you didn’t tell me?”
“I am telling you now.”
“That’s not the same.”
His gaze sharpened.
“You want honesty? Fine. You are leverage and they know it.”
The words struck hard.
Leverage.
I stepped back.
“So that’s what I am?”
He moved forward.
“That’s what they see.”
“And you?”
A pause.
Too long.
“I see someone I cannot afford to lose.” The honesty startled both of us.
That was a mistake. Saying that. Letting it slip but it was true, and truth, once spoken cannot be retracted.