Reborn to Ruin Him novel · Chapter 21 of 24

Chapter 21: What It Costs

I did not look at him at breakfast.

I sat at the long dining table with my ankle wrapped and a cup of coffee going cold. My whole body still hummed.

Gabriel came in at nine, in yesterday's trousers and a borrowed shirt.

He stopped in the doorway, and every servant in the room stopped with him.

"Miss Lockwood," the housekeeper said. "We didn't expect."

"Please stay," Gabriel said. "All of you. I need ten minutes."

The cook came out of the kitchen drying her hands. Two maids, the driver and the gardener drifted in behind her.

The butler stood by the sideboard with a silver pot, as he had stood for thirty years.

I put my cup down and watched.

"I owe this house something," Gabriel said. His voice was steady. "A month ago I ordered my sister to be a servant in it."

Nobody moved.

"I made her carry Rosalind Ellery's bags. I made her kneel and rub Rosalind's ankle. I stood in this room and told every one of you to treat her as the help."

The cook looked at the floor.

"I let a woman pour hot soup on her hand, and I smashed the bracelet I had given her in front of you all. I put her out of my car in the rain, in a storm, and I left her."

He looked at the maids.

"You saw me do it. Not one of you said a word, and I don't blame you. You were afraid of me. That was my doing too."

The room was dead quiet.

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