Ester had not taken her eyes off Roseline the entire evening.
The mont she saw Roseline lean toward Hugo and whisper sothing urgent, Ester’s instincts sharpened. She watched Hugo nod, watched the two of them excuse themselves, and the second they started up the stairs, Ester acted.
Without hesitation, she placed her untouched glass onto a passing waiter’s tray and slipped into the shadows, her movents careful, practiced. She kept a safe distance, just enough not to draw attention, her heels barely making a sound against the marble floor.
Finally, she thought.
This was the opportunity she had been waiting for.
Roseline and Hugo disappeared into the upper hallway. Ester followed, heart pounding, pulse quickening with anticipation. If she could catch Roseline in a compromising situation—even sothing that looked suspicious—it would be enough. Scandal didn’t need truth. It only needed timing.
She reached the corridor just as a door shut.
Locked.
Ester cursed silently under her breath and pressed closer, placing her ear against the wood. Nothing. No voices. No movent. Just the faint hum of the party below.
"Damn it," she whispered.
Ester stepped back, irritation flaring. Had she miscalculated? but the suddenly the door opened, startling her.
Ester reacted instantly, darting behind a thick marble pillar just as Roseline stepped out. Hugo was nowhere in sight.
Roseline glanced around briefly, her expression sharp and alert, before walking briskly down the hall in the opposite direction.
Ester’s eyes narrowed.
"Where are you going?" she muttered.
She waited a beat, then followed again, keeping to the shadows, her curiosity now edged with sothing darker. Roseline wasn’t heading back to the party. She was moving deeper into the mansion, toward the servants’ quarters.
That alone was suspicious.
Ester slowed as Roseline turned a corner and disappeared down a narrower corridor. The air here was quieter, the lights dimr. Ester crept closer, careful now, senses heightened.
Then she heard another voice.
A man’s.
Ester froze and flattened herself against the wall, inching behind a pillar just as Roseline stepped into view again—this ti not alone.
Collin.
Ester’s breath caught.
She recognized him imdiately. The sa man she had seen serving drinks to everyone.
’What are the eting for?’ she thought trying to sneak a peak, but failed.
Roseline stopped in front of him, her back partially turned, her voice low but firm.
"You know what to do," Roseline said. "The staff exits are clear. The back gate will be unlocked for exactly seven minutes."
Ester’s blood ran cold as she heard Roseline deadpan tone.
Collin nodded. "And the girl?"
"Take her through the garden path," Roseline instructed without hesitation. "No witnesses. Make it look like she wandered off. Children go missing at parties all the ti—it won’t raise imdiate suspicion."
Ester’s hand flew to her mouth.
Missing. Girl.
Her heart slamd violently against her ribs.
"And if soone notices too early?" the man asked.
Roseline’s tone hardened. "They won’t. Gorge has been sent away. Hugo is occupied. By the ti anyone realizes she’s gone, you’ll be far enough."
"And after?" Collin asked.
Roseline’s pause was brief—but telling. "Disappear. Lay low. I’ll handle the rest."
Ester felt dizzy. This wasn’t a scandal. This was a cri. A cri of abducing soone’s child.
She pressed herself tighter into the shadows as Roseline stepped back, scanning the corridor. Ester held her breath, praying she wouldn’t be seen.
"Don’t fail ," Roseline warned.
"I won’t," Collin replied calmly. "She trusts easily."
Roseline turned and walked away, heels echoing softly as she disappeared down the corridor, her composure intact, her face unreadable.
Ester remained frozen long after she was gone.
Her mind raced, fear and adrenaline colliding. She had wanted leverage. Proof. Sothing to bring Hugo down.
But this—
This was far worse than she had imagined.
Slowly, Ester pulled back into the shadows, her heart hamring as one terrifying thought repeated itself over and over.
A child is about to disappear.
And for the first ti that night, Ester wasn’t thinking about power or scandal.
She was thinking about how much ti was left thinking the child Roseline was trying to abduct won’t turn out to be her daughter.
"I need to take Fiona away"
While Ester had misunderstood the whole conversation, Collin had already moved on his plan by taking Kathrine away.
[Present]
"You think I don’t know anything?" Ester snapped, her voice slicing through the air. "How you hired that waiter to kidnap Kathrine—and then pinned everything on Gorge, making him the culprit for it all."
The words hung heavy, poisonous.
Ester’s chest rose and fell sharply, anger burning through every line of her posture. She hated that she knew the truth. Hated it even more that knowing it had never changed a damn thing.
Because the truth had never mattered.
Even now, when she finally spoke it aloud, there was no room left to turn it over, no way to reverse what had already been written into everyone’s mory.
It had been Kathrine herself.
Kathrine, trembling and traumatized, who had said Gorge took her away.
Kathrine, the child everyone believed without question.
And once those words were spoken, the world had adjusted itself accordingly. Gorge had beco the villain. The convenient one. The disposable one. No amount of logic or protest had been enough to erase that image.
Ester swallowed hard, bitterness coating her tongue.
"I knew Gorge didn’t take her," she continued, her voice shaking now—not with doubt, but with fury. "I knew it. But what good was the truth when even Kathrine believed it was him?"
Roseline’s jaw clenched so tightly it ached.
Ester’s accusation struck far closer than she expected. Too close.
So she isn’t lying, Roseline thought grimly.
That much was clear now.
But then another question clawed its way up, unsettling her even more.
Why now?
If Ester had known all this ti—if she had really seen through everything—why hadn’t she brought it up before? Why keep it buried for years, only to drag it out now like a weapon sharpened by patience?
Roseline’s gaze hardened as she studied Ester more carefully.
Was she always trying to ss with ... and failing?
Or worse— Was she waiting for the perfect mont?
"You’re quiet," Ester sneered, noticing the shift. "No denial this ti?"
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