~ROWAN's POV ~
Breakfast was finished, and the dishes were done and Elara had taken her laptop back to the kitchen table by nine a.m., which was where she always worked best. He had left her to it and gone to his studies with the intention of calling Patricia.
Instead, he stood in front of the east wing cabinet for a long time.
He had known it was there. He had always known... it was his father's cabinet, the one Edmund had moved from the original Vale Industries offices when Rowan took over, the one that contained the private version of Edmund Vale rather than the professional one. He had left it alone out of something that was not quite grief and not quite respect and lived in the uncomfortable space between the two.
Last night had changed that.
He opened it.
Three hours. He went t
