Lilith said nothing.
"I did not tell him anything," Wren said. "I want to be clear about that. I told him you were fine and I had nothing else to say to him and I ended the call."
She paused. "But Lilith. He keeps calling. And the timing....." She stopped.
"What about the timing," Lilith said.
Her voice had come out flat.
Wren looked at her carefully.
"The first time he called was two days after the post went up," she said. "The original one. The one naming Beta Thorne’s daughter."
Lilith looked at the gravel under her feet.
Mike.
She had not thought about Mike in.....she could not remember the last time she had thought about Mike. He had taken up so much space in her life for years and now he was just....nothing. A name attached to a closed door.
But a name that had given Wren her number.
A name that had known about her being sent to the Blackwood brothers.
A name that kept calling two days after a post appeared.
"He is not worth your time," Wren said. "I am not saying he posted it. I am saying the timing is something to notice."
"I noticed," Lilith said.
Her voice came out quiet and controlled than she imagined.
She picked up Wren’s bag from the ground.
"Come inside," she said. "Agnes made food."
Agnes had made enough for twelve people.
This was what Agnes did when she approved of a visitor.
Wren walked into the kitchen and stopped in the doorway and looked at the spread on the large table and at the kitchen itself.
Wren was doing the maths.
She could see it. The sharp eyes moving over everything....the estate, the kitchen, the food, the mark on Lilith’s throat and adding it all up into a picture she was not sure she had the right frame for yet.
Agnes looked at Wren once.
Nodded once, then set a plate in front of her and said "eat" and then she turned back and left to give them some privacy.
"I like her," Wren said.
"Everyone likes Agnes," Lilith said.
They started eating.
For a few minutes it was just food and the kitchen clock and the sound of the estate settling around them. Wren ate the way she always ate....efficiently, without fuss, because food was fuel and Wren was practical about everything.
Then she put her fork down.
Reached into her bag.
Pulled out a folded piece of paper and set it on the table between them.
Lilith looked at it.
"Sixth post," Wren said. "Went up two days ago. Taken down within three hours." She paused. "Someone with serious resources flagged it across every platform simultaneously. I printed it before it disappeared."
Lilith looked at the paper but didn’t reach for it.
"How bad," she said.
Wren’s looked at her and the gestured to the paper. "Read it," she said.
Lilith unfolded the paper and started reading it.
Three lines into reading she stopped reading, not because of what it said about her father, but because of a name.
A name she had not heard spoken out loud since she was eight years old standing in her mother’s kitchen watching a woman with pale eyes and dark hair say goodbye to her mother.
Her mother’s name.
Her real name.
The name that had never come up, not even during official duties, because her mother had always used her father’s name.
And under the post was another screenshot from another post, and it says "Beta Victor’s death should be investigated."
She read it twice then dropped it back on the table.
"Wren," she said.
"Yes." Wren looked up from her food.
"How long have you had this?" Lilith asked.
"Since the morning it went up." Wren’s replied. "I waited to show you in person. I needed to see your expression." She paused. "Because if they had already told you about it and you were still here then we will be having a different conversation."
"And if they hadn’t told me?" Lilith asked.
"Then we are having the discussion now." Wren said.
Lilith looked at the paper on the table.
She picked it up, folded it and put it inside her pocket.
Then she turned to looked at Wren. "Stay here to the night," she said.
Wren looked at her carefully.
"Lilith...."
"Stay," she said again. "I am not ready to be alone right now. And I am not ready to confront them yet." She held her friend’s gaze. "I just need time to think tonight."
Wren was quiet for a moment, then she reached across the table and put her hand over Lilith’s.
"I’ll stay," she said.
Lilith looked at their hands.
Nodded and then picked up her fork to finish her food.
***
She found Nicholas in his office around midnight. Still at his desk. Still dressed, like she knew he would be.
She walked in and put the paper in front of him without saying anything.
Just watched his face while he read it.
His jaw tightened, then he dropped the paper back on the table and looked up at her waiting eyes. "Lilith...." Nicholas started.
"Was my father really guilty of the crime you accused him of?" she asked him, her eyes never leaving his face. " Or was he murdered like the post stated?"
Nicholas looked at her.
And she had her answer before he said a single word, because she could see it in his face.
He already knew about this post.
"Who told you?" He asked
"Wren printed it before it was taken down." She held his gaze. "Someone took it down fast. Within hours." She paused. "That was you."
Nicholas said nothing which only confirms her suspicion.
She pulled the chair across from his desk and sat down.
"My father died during that attack at the alliance meeting," she said. "That was what I was told. That was what the official report you sent to Shadowmare said." She looked at him steadily. "Is that true?"
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