Chapter 504
[ 535 words ]
Chapter 504:
The name, Leland, had an immediate, chilling effect. The warmth vanished from Agnes’s face. Her smile disappeared. Her hands, resting on her lap, clenched into tight fists, twisting the fabric of her apron. A look of profound, old-world fear and disgust flickered in her eyes.
Caroline saw the change instantly. She put down the wooden spoon and turned off the burner. She walked over to Agnes, her expression full of a quiet, patient concern. “What is it?” she asked softly. “Did it have something to do with his mother? Isabella?”
Agnes let out a long, shuddering sigh. She looked up at Caroline, at the clear, steady intelligence in her eyes. This was not a child. This was a woman who had seen the world’s darkness and had not flinched. This was a woman who had earned the General’s trust and, in doing so, had earned hers. This was a woman who had a right to know what kind of family she had married into.
She slid off the stool and walked to the heavy oak doors that led out of the kitchen. She looked both ways down the empty service corridor, then she pushed the doors shut. She turned the heavy brass lock. The click echoed in the sudden, heavy silence of the room. The kitchen, moments before a place of warmth and comfort, now felt like a vault.
Caroline understood. Whatever was about to be said was dangerous. She pulled another stool over and sat opposite Agnes, giving the older woman her complete, undivided attention.
𝗝𝗈𝗂n 𝗍𝗁o𝗎𝘴aո𝘥𝘀 𝗈𝖿 𝖿anѕ 𝗈n 𝘨а𝗅𝗇𝗼𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘀.𝖼о𝗺
Agnes’s voice, when she finally spoke, was a low, haunted whisper. “This isn’t just about Isabella’s tragedy, child. This is about how Cornelia McDowell climbed into this family over a dead woman’s soul.”
Caroline’s blood ran cold. The petty squabbles in the dining room, Harper’s jealousy, Cornelia’s scheming, it wasn’t just about social status. It was a war that had been raging for decades.
Agnes’s gaze became distant, looking back through time. “Thirty years ago,” she began, “there was Isabella. She was… light. A scholar of classical literature at Georgetown. She was brilliant and kind, and she was engaged to be married to another professor. A good man, a simple man. They were happy.”
A shadow crossed Agnes’s face. “But then, at a political gala, Leland Romero saw her. He was the heir, then. Arrogant, powerful, used to taking whatever he wanted. And he decided he wanted her.”
Caroline felt a knot of dread tighten in her stomach.
“Isabella and her fiancé tried to run,” Agnes continued, her voice barely audible. “They were going to move to California, to get away from him, away from this city. But you can’t run from the Romeros. Not when they want something.”
She looked directly at Caroline, her eyes filled with a grim, terrible knowledge. “Leland used the family’s political machine. He had the man’s academic career destroyed. Blacklisted. Then he went further. He made it clear that if Isabella did not break the engagement and marry him, her fiancé’s life would be in danger.”
Caroline gasped, her hand flying to her mouth.
“She had no choice,” Agnes whispered, tears welling in her eyes. “To save the man she loved, she walked down the aisle and became Isabella Romero.”
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