Dominic’s face was a bruised purple as he glared at Evelyn, his hands twitching with the urge to silence her permanently.

He had kept his obsession with Seraphina locked in the deepest vault of his heart, a sacred secret he thought he’d hidden from the world. To hear Evelyn drag it into the light, tarnishing Seraphina’s image with the suggestion of a scandal, was more than he could bear.

"This isn't about Seraphina!" he barked, his voice cracking with desperation. "You’re just jealous! You’re bitter that Julian chose her needs over your vanity! You want to drag her name through the mud, but it won’t work. No one will believe a viper like you!"

Evelyn met his gaze with a chilling detachment. "You’re half right, Dominic. Julian did choose to abandon me on our wedding day. And because of that, I’m finished with him."

Dominic scoffed. He’d seen Evelyn’s devotion to Julian for years; it was a fundamental law of their universe. She didn’t just like Julian; she revolved around him. He was certain that one sweet word from Julian or a tearful apology from Seraphina would have Evelyn wagging her tail and running back to them.

But he didn't know that Evelyn had already fled.

The reality of her departure hit the Ward household like a thunderclap when a clerk from the placement office arrived to serve Caleb his papers. Not only had Evelyn volunteered for the rural youth program, but she had taken the family’s household register and signed her younger brother up for the exact same fate.

Mrs. Ward’s breakdown was instantaneous and feral.

"That monster! That ungrateful wretch!" she shrieked, her voice echoing through the alley. "What did I ever do to her? How could she do this to Caleb? I should have drowned her at birth! I should have sold her to some mountain man to be used until she rotted!"

Her curses grew viler, descending into a gutter-language that even the neighbors found hard to stomach.

"Enough!" Mr. Ward roared, his face ashen. "Crying won't change the papers. We need to find your brother, Sloan. If anyone can get Caleb’s name off that list, it’s him."

Mrs. Ward choked back a sob, her body trembling with a mixture of terror and loathing. She had no choice but to swallow her pride and run to her brother. He was the family's last tether to the life they knew.

Seraphina, hearing of the new crisis, took a leave of absence from work to visit Caleb. Her face was a study in fragile concern, her skin looking like translucent porcelain.

"Caleb... is it true? Has she really... gone to the countryside?"

Caleb’s face twisted at the mention of his sister. Since the realization that his own flesh and blood had sentenced him to the fields, his heart had hardened into a knot of coal. "She isn’t my sister. I don’t have a sister."

Seraphina’s eyes shimmered with unshed tears. "But she loved you so much. Why would she do this so suddenly?"

Caleb had no answer. He couldn't reconcile the sister who used to wait on him hand and foot with the woman who had effectively exiled him.

Seraphina bit her lip, a sharp, cold light flickering in her eyes for a split second. If Evelyn doesn't come back, if she doesn't marry Julian, then all my work was for nothing. She needed Evelyn back in the city—back in the trap she had so carefully built.

When Mrs. Ward returned, she brought only bad news. Sloan was powerless; the bureaucracy had moved too fast. The best he could do was divert Caleb from the harsh southern marshes to the northern plains—specifically, to the same brigade as Dominic.

Caleb was to leave the next morning. The household descended into a frantic, panicked blur of packing and baking. For the first time in days, they were too busy to even curse Evelyn’s name.

Later that evening, Seraphina sought out Julian. She stood before him, the picture of a girl burdened by a secret she couldn't keep.

"Did she send you to beg for her?" Julian asked, his brow arched in a cynical line. He was used to this dance; Evelyn would offend him, lose her nerve, and send Seraphina to smooth things over.

"Julian... Evelyn knows," Seraphina whispered, her voice trembling. "She knows you missed the wedding because you were at the hospital with me."

Julian’s heart skipped. His father had kept that detail from him, fearing Evelyn’s reaction. To realize she had known all along—that her coldness was born of that knowledge—stung more than he cared to admit. "Did she come after you? Did she scream at you?"

Seraphina shook her head, tears finally spilling over. "No. I wish she had. Instead... she’s gone to the country."

"To her classmate's house again? Which one?"

"No, Julian. She’s gone for good. She signed up for the labor program. She’s already left, and she took Caleb’s name with her. He leaves tomorrow."

Julian’s face went white. "She’s insane! Why didn't she talk to me?"

"Maybe she felt she couldn't face you," Seraphina suggested softly. "After losing all that money... she probably felt like she had no choice but to hide."

Julian’s jaw tightened. The five thousand dollars was still a festering wound in his own home; his mother used it as a whetstone to sharpen her tongue every night. "She made her bed," he muttered, though his eyes betrayed his agitation. "Let her sleep in it."

Seraphina grabbed his hand, her touch cold and desperate. "Julian, she’s your wife in everything but name. You can't just leave her out there..."

"The engagement is over. She saw to that."

"It’s all my fault!" Seraphina cried, nearly collapsing to her knees. "If my heart hadn't failed that night, you would have been at the wedding. She wouldn't have been angry... she wouldn't have left. Please, Julian, help her!"

Julian was deeply moved by her selflessness. "You foolish girl," he said, pulling her up. "You’re suffering, and yet you’re still worried about her—the girl who hates you."

"She’s my best friend," Seraphina sobbed. "Nothing changes that."

Convinced of Seraphina’s saintliness, Julian finally relented. "Fine. If she admits she was wrong, apologizes to my parents and to you, I’ll find a way to bring her back. I’ll settle the money with my mother somehow."

Seraphina beamed through her tears, whispering her thanks. Julian, however, was already calculating how to scrounge up five thousand dollars. Without that restitution, his mother would never let Evelyn back through the door.

The next morning, the Wards gathered at the train station to see Caleb off. Seraphina was there too, looking like a tragic heroine in the morning mist.

When the conductor gave the final call, Caleb looked at her for a long, silent moment. He stepped forward and pulled her into a tight, desperate embrace. "I'm going, Seraphina."

"Call me, Caleb. Write to me," she whispered into his ear. "Don't leave me wondering."

Caleb hadn't cried when he hugged his mother, but now his eyes were wet. "I’ll miss you," he choked out.

As the train pulled away, Seraphina’s tears fell onto his shoulder, a hot, searing brand that he took with him into the north. It was the first time she had ever cried truly for him—or so he believed.