“Auntie Eleonor,” I reply promptly. “Just the one daughter.”
He makes another noise in the back of his throat and keeps going, every branch of the family asking me who are the natural heirs not mentioned.
“Sable, the Colefax have not produced a male heir since your grandfather,” Soren concludes.
Oh. I look back at the family tree, looking with new eyes all over again. “That’s true, but why should that matter?”
“That’s why they took their door,” Parker says after a heavy moment of silence, following Soren’s line of thought.
“Because we didn’t have a male heir?” I ask, wanting to believe that couldn’t be true, but the Founders have never cared much about women. The Offering itself is proof of that.
“Girls don’t get a door, Sable. Your mom never got a door, just like you didn’t.”
“They dug our initial out of a door and tried to destroy our history because we didn’t produce an heir?” The depth of the misogyny shocks me.We would have eventually produced a boy.
“They don’t care about anything but power,” Lex says. “They saw a weakness and an opportunity to get rid of the competition. It’s not unlike them.”
I roll my eyes and step away from the table. “That explains why there isn’t a fifth family, but why go after Dad? The Briarwicks did nothing, right? Why ruin my family? Why go after us like that when the Colfaxes were already done for?”
No one had an answer for that, of course not, because it feels like a hundred things happening and trying to stop me. Stop me from what? I don’t want a stupid door. I don’t want to be recognized as one of the families of Bellthorn. God, all I want is to survive. I think back to the day I killed my uncle and the strange things he said about my mother before that. I thought he was suggesting she was an Offering, but I don’t think so anymore.
“No,” Soren says. “I don’t think this hasanythingto do with what happened to your dad. Your mom wouldn’t have meant anything to the Founders if they already wrote her family off.” I wince at the cruelty, and he shoots me an apologetic look. “If what happened to your father was manufactured, it was very targeted to destroy him. Your parents must have hated them for what they did, and I wonder if they didn’t have something they could use against the remaining Founders. Your mom deserved a place as an heir, but she wasn’t awarded one. What if they decided to take revenge?”
“Mom and Dad?” I ask, wondering if he’s lost his mind. Dad never took revenge on anyone but us.
Sure, they always hated Bellthorn, and Dad never wanted me to come here, but knowing Bellthorn, it’s obvious why. This place is insane. Who would want their kids to come here? Besides that, they never looked like people trying to uncover secrets of the most affluent families in this country. But what do I even know about them? Dad was hiding a whole-ass sister from me.
Memories of him are convoluted. He was a good father at first. I remember trusting him to take care of me, but as the years went on, he became distant, and we barely talked. After he tried to kill me and I found out why, I decided to bury the good memories. I didn’t even want to think of him as the father I loved after what he did. Now, I’m uncertain enough to feel the weight of that guilt. It’s obvious by Nina’s face that she believed way more in his innocence than I ever have, but she didn’t need to swim out of a river. Her mom is still alive, and my guys met her. That jealousy burns deeply.
Mom was soft and lovely. I don’t remember her being very involved with me. She wasn’t hands-on, but I remember her smiling and making sure I was safe. That was a constant in my life. It was always about safety. That’s why we had the lakehouse, a place no one knew how to reach. Those things were just a fact of my childhood, but now I have to really look into it and wonder, why were we always so scared? Why was our ability to escape without a trace her most pressing concern?
“Do you know anything about your grandfather’s siblings?” Parker asks.
“I know Auntie Georgina was the youngest, Grandad was the middle, and they have an eldest sister who no one talked about.”
“Yeah, she must be the one they’ve scorched out,” he says like that explains his curiosity but it only ignites mine.
What?
I cross the room again, and just like he says, the spot where my grandfather’s older sister should be is burned.
“That’s dramatic,” Orion whistles.
“What happened?” Parker looks at me, but I shake my head.
“No one ever told me, but I knew part of the family we weren’t close to. I just assumed it was a silly family argument or something. I never thought I had to ask too much. I never thought?—”
Never thought we would ever be here. The shame Nina shoved onto me burns once more. I’ve caused so many of my own problems by not asking questions.
“Between finding out I have a half sister and now this shit. All the sides of my family have deep secrets and melodramas. What else is there to find out?”
Fear grips my throat as the possibilities of the situation roll out in front of me.What does this all mean?There are too many moving parts, and I’m just one pathetic person trying to survive. I don’t have money without jumping through a bunch of hoops, and in the end, that’s the only thing that matters in their eyes. Money that they will happily take from me first if they can manage it. My hands tremble, and I hug myself, hating my current position. I’m tired of being the prey. I’m done waiting.
“Sable?” Parker kneels in front of me. He’s tall enough that we are almost the same size.
My hands close around his face. It’s natural to seek their warmth, especially when everything feels empty inside me.
“We are going to find out who is behind this mess. You don’t need to worry. You’re not alone.”
