Rachel stepped forward abruptly and struck her.
The blow cracked across Madeline’s cheek, her head snapping to the side as pain flared bright and immediate. She tasted blood.
“You will do as you are told,” Rachel hissed. “For once in your life, you will be a dutiful daughter.”
Madeline’s vision steadied slowly. She turned her head back, meeting her mother’s gaze with something fierce and unbroken.
“You can bind my body,” she said quietly. “But you will never own me.”
Rachel recoiled as though struck, her expression twisting with something like rage and fear intertwined.
“We shall see,” she said coldly. “Captain Hale will make certain of it.”
Madeline’s breath broke then; the restraint she had clung to splintered at last. Tears spilled hot and unchecked down her cheeks. Her chest heaved as fury and terror tore through her in equal measure. She strained against the ropes. The chair scraped faintly against the floor as she twisted toward her mother, desperation bleeding into her voice.
“I will give it to you,” she said hoarsely. “All of it. The money. Every penny you ever wanted. Just—just let me go.”
For a moment, Rachel only watched her. Then she laughed, short and humorless.
“Set you free?” she said. “After everything you have done?” Her expression hardened, whatever fractured emotion had surfaced sealing shut with practiced finality. “No. You have already cost me too much.”
Madeline shook her head, breath hitching. “You have what you came for.”
Rachel stepped closer. “What I want,” she said evenly, “is for you to be settled. Permanently. No more running. No more surprises. I will not have you loose in the world again, undoing what I have arranged.”
She turned away as though the matter were decided. “I have indulged you enough,” she added flatly. “You have exhausted my patience.”
Madeline opened her mouth to speak again, to plead or rage or scream, she did not know which?—
When a heavy thud sounded from the hallway outside.
The noise was sudden, unmistakable, followed by the faint echo of something striking wood or stone with violent force. Madeline froze mid-breath, her heart slamming against her ribs as the sound reverberated through the house.
Rachel stilled.
Another thud followed, louder this time, closer.
CHAPTER 29
“Stay where you are.” The voice cut through the room with a force that made Madeline’s breath seize painfully in her chest.
For a heartbeat, she did not trust it. Hope had become too much, too easily weaponized against her. And yet every part of her body reacted before her mind could catch up, heat flaring sharp and bright beneath her fear, her pulse crashing wildly as recognition struck deep and undeniable.
Wilhelm.
The door behind Rachel stood ajar now, the aftermath of the heavy thud made suddenly clear. The frame bore the mark of violent impact, wood splintered, the air charged with motion and urgency. Wilhelm filled the threshold, tall and immovable, his coat open, his chest rising and falling with restrained fury, his eyes locked not onher.
For one shuddering second, the world narrowed to the sight of him here. His gaze found her immediately, devastating in its pain, and something inside her gave way with a soundless, aching crack.
Then Captain Hale moved.
The scrape of metal was loud in the confined space. Madeline’s eyes flew to him just as he raised the pistol, his hand shaking despite the practiced familiarity of the weapon. The barrel swung toward Wilhelm’s chest, black and merciless.
“No—!” The cry flew from her throat, raw and unthinking.
Wilhelm did not flinch. If anything, he leaned forward, his body taut with barely restrained violence, his hands open at his sides as though daring Hale to try.
“Put it down,” Wilhelm said, his voice low and even in a way that terrified her far more than shouting ever could. “This ends now.”
