MARGARET POV
I know the moment Laura leaves the estate. The air changes, It always does after she’s been here, like a storm that never quite breaks but leaves the ground unstable beneath your feet. The staff grows quieter, the walls feel tighter. Even the roses outside my window seem to droop, as though they, too, recognize when danger has passed too close.
I sit very still in my armchair, hands folded in my lap, heart pounding far harder than my body has any right to allow. Laura came here with purpose.
That much I know, and Lavender… God help her, that child was not ready for a woman like my daughter-in-law. I had watched from the balcony as Laura crossed the courtyard earlier, her posture immaculate, her expression carefully neutral, not fury, not grief.
Control, that is what makes
