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“Your mother left,” the man said at last.
Chaol didn’t hide his shock.
His father gripped the stone parapet. “She
took Terrin and left. I don’t know where they
fled. As soon as we realized we’d been
surrounded by enemies, she took her ladies-
in-waiting, their families. Departed in the
dead of night. Only your brother bothered to
leave a note.”
His mother, after all she’d endured, all
she’d survived in this hellish house, had
finally walked out. To save her other son—
their promise of a future. “What did Terrin
say?”
His father smoothed his hand over the
stone. “It doesn’t matter.”
It clearly did. But now wasn’t the time to
push, to care.
There was no fear on his father’s face. Just
cold resignation.