The beta delivered the news to Nicholas in three lines.
The girl from the Rite had not been escorted off the property.
She was in Lucian's guest quarters.
He was moving before the man finished talking. Nicholas stood up and made his way to his brother's quarters, the look on his face was that someone who was about to have a very pointed conversation with a younger brother. Lucian had been given a direct order. Lucian had not followed it. And Nicholas was going to make sure he understood exactly why that was a problem.
He was halfway down the corridor when he heard it through the door.
I am not his daughter.
The words stopped him.
Not the content....he'd already processed that, already filed it under complicated and left it there. It was the tone. The way it didn't sound like a statement. It sounded like a prayer. Repeated, desperate, aimed inward rather than out.
He stood with his hand on the door for one full second.
Then he pushed it open.
