_Rowena's POV_
I chose the morning deliberately.
Alice was weakened. Not finished, not yet, but the ground beneath her had shifted significantly and she knew it. The arrests, the exposed network, the names Rita had given us. All of it had been quietly moving through the right channels and Alice could feel the walls closing even if she couldn't see exactly where they were coming from.
That feeling of losing control was exactly what I needed her to have right now.
Because a distracted Alice was a slower Alice.
And a slower Alice gave me time to clean my own house.
I called the head of our family’s guards before breakfast and gave the instruction simply and without explanation. Seal the courtyard. Nobody in, nobody out, without my direct authorization. Every gate, every si
