Chapter 4

Ruth stepped forward from the crowd. She handed me a white silk handkerchief.

I wrapped it tight around my bleeding palm.

The white silk turned red almost at once.

I turned. I walked back down the wide aisle the city's elite had made for me.

The click of my cane was the only sound left in the Grand Ballroom.

Click. Step. Click. Step.

My blood was still dripping onto the cold marble.

But I was already gone.

The Vale Trust estate sat on two hundred acres of private coastline.

The main house was a fortress of black steel and reinforced…