Chapter 143

The car slowed to a stop in front of the estate’s towering gates. Black iron curled like claws around stone pillars, still as severe as she remembered.

Grace took a breath and didn’t move right away.

The silence inside the vehicle was overwhelming until one of Keegan’s men in the front seat turned slightly, and spoke in a calm and respectful voice. “We’re here, Miss Blackwood.”

That name still felt like a coat she didn’t know whether to keep or burn. It felt too tight in the shoulders, too heavy in the sleeves.

Grace nodded as her fingers briefly curled around the door handle before she finally pushed it open.

The wind outside smelled like damp earth and iron. The gravel crunched beneath her as she stepped out slowly, like someone walking onto sacred ground, not because it was holy, but because it was haunted.

The front of the estate stood tall and unchanged. Stone walls were untouched by time, windows shut tight, the brass knocker on the front do