They came up the stairs in silence.Catherine first. Then Elena. Then Alexander, whose footsteps on the old wooden steps were so controlled and deliberate that Elena could hear the effort in them. The effort of a man preparing himself for something he had no framework for and was building one in real time.The sitting room was empty when they came through the hallway door.The fire had been tended. Someone had added wood while they were downstairs. The flames were higher now, throwing more light across the room, and in that light Elena noticed things she had missed on the way through.The photographs on the hallway wall she had wanted to stop and look at.She stopped now.Her father, young and serious, standing outside a building she didn't recognize.Margaret Knight beside him, laughing at something outside the frame.Catherine in the background, watching both of them with that same sharp still expression she wore now, like she had always been the person observing rather than the per
ปรับปรุงล่าสุด : 2026-07-19
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