Anna's POV:

The villa is warm and Mia has left a covered plate on the kitchen counter, and outside the lake holds the last of the evening light, and none of it reaches whatever has settled in my chest since I picked up the phone.

Lady Martha's voice carried the specific quality it always carries — measured, precise, delivering a thing that has already been decided and is being communicated as a courtesy rather than a request.

"The blood test," ...