CHLO’s POV

This mansion had always been a cage for me, but now it was worse, a cage with eyes. Eyes in the walls. Eyes in the hallways. Eyes behind every polite smile.

After the tea incident, nothing was the same again.

No one said it out loud, but everyone knew something was wrong. The maid who took my tea that morning still lay unconscious in the private infirmary downstairs. The doctor claimed it was “mild poisoning.” Food contamination. Something that could have been tragic. ...