All Chapters of VOWS IN THE WAR ROOM: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

I didn’t sleep so much as drift in and out of shallow waters.Every time the house creaked, my eyes snapped open. Every time the wind shoved at the window, my heart jumped like it owed the glass an apology.The key stayed under my pillow until dawn because I didn’t know what else to do with it.When grey light finally smeared across the river, I peeled the tape off the brass again and held it in my palm. Old-fashioned. Heavy for its size. The kind of key you don't casually lose in a couch cushion.I tried it against the little drawer in the bedside table out of pure spite.No fit.I tried it against the wardrobe lock.No.Of course. If it were that easy, the house wouldn’t be full of hidden doors.I slipped it into the inside pocket of my cardigan and sat very still on the edge of the bed, listening for footsteps.They came an hour later—a soft knock, then Colette’s voice through the

Renaud didn’t raise his voice on the stairs.He didn’t need to.He stood over the loosened railing like it had personally offended him, shoulders still, eyes sharp. Gabriel crouched at the bracket again, flashlight angled up, and the metal glittered with those tiny scratches.“Close this staircase,” Renaud said.Gabriel didn’t ask questions. “I’ll tape it off and post someone.”“Two people,” Renaud corrected.Gabriel nodded once, like he’d already agreed before the words finished.I wrapped my arms around myself, not because I was cold, but because my skin kept remembering that moment of empty air. One slip, one broken rail, and I would’ve been a story told in this house with tea and lowered voices.I stared at Renaud. “So now what? Nobody uses stairs?”“Not these,” he said.“You own a whole estate, and one railin

The photo of Luc sat on my screen like an insult.Not blurry. Not accidental. Close enough to see the keys in his hand. Close enough to see his shoulders slumped, like he was already tired of being afraid.Tell your husband or bury your brother.I read it twice because the first time my brain refused to accept the words.Sophie was still talking behind me, something about deliveries, something about contracts...her voice a thin thread in a room that had suddenly become too small.I locked my phone and stood up so fast my chair scraped the floor.Sophie stopped mid-sentence. “Yselle?”Gabriel was already moving. He didn’t ask. He didn’t wait. He just lifted his phone and stepped away from the doorway, turning his body slightly like he didn’t want anyone to read his face.I followed him anyway.“Give me a second,” Gabriel said, not unkind, but firm.“I

Luc didn’t speak much on the drive back.He stared out the window like he expected his own fear to show up on the glass. When the gate to Renaud’s estate opened, Luc made a small noise in his throat, half impressed, half sick.“Of course he has a gate,” Luc muttered.I kept my eyes on the road ahead. “Don’t start.”“I’m not starting,” he said quickly. “I’m… observing.”“Observe quietly,” I told him.Renaud sat beside me, still and unreadable, phone in hand. He’d sent three short messages on the way back. No extra words. No explanations. Just orders, sent into the air like they couldn’t be questioned.Gabriel drove. The second vehicle followed like a shadow with headlights.When the car stopped under the covered entrance, Colette was already waiting. She didn’t look surprised to see us. Which meant she’d been

Renaud still didn’t tell me the name.He said it once…someone I need to see will be there…and then he shut the door on the rest of the sentence like it was a room I wasn’t allowed to enter.He left me standing in the hallway, arms folded, trying not to look like a woman who’d been turned into a prop in her own life.Gabriel cleared his throat beside me. “We’ll start now.”“Start what?” I asked, even though I knew.“Crowd work,” he said.I sighed. “You should call it ‘How to Pretend You’re Fine While Everyone Studies You.’”Gabriel’s mouth twitched. “That’s accurate.”We trained again, faster this time. Walk, pause, angle. Hands relaxed. Eyes steady. No clutching. No flinching. I did it until my shoulders ached.Then Colette appeared and announced, like the house ran on bells and rules,