_Rowena’s POV_
Kasper brought Corby to the Ashthorne estate’s east annex at four in the morning.
Not the main house, the annex was separate, originally built as a guest facility, currently used for storage and security operations. It had a room at the back with no windows and good soundproofing that Kasper had identified within his first week on the estate and had never explained why he’d identified it.
I had not asked. Tonight I was grateful.
I sat across from Corby at the plain table in that room and looked at him.
He was a man who had been certain of his position for nine years and had lost that certainty in approximately two hours. What remained was the smallness of someone who had understood, belatedly, the full weight of what they had been part of.
“Start from the
