Katarina waited two days before she started pulling.
Not because she needed time to think. She'd known what Cabrian's contract was the second she'd read page three. She waited because a nine-year-old girl who reacted to a business meeting with immediate, surgical investigation would raise questions that Katarina did not want to answer.
So she waited. She ate dinner. She did her breathing exercises with Brynn. She went to school. She came home. And on the second evening, when Seris had the ledgers open on the study table and a glass of wine in her hand, Katarina sat across from her and started.
"Mama, what's the Cabrian Trading Company?"
Seris glanced up.
"Signore Cabrian's firm. You met him the other day."
"Yeah, but what do they actually do? Like, where are they from?"
"The central kingdoms. Tessavere, I think. They handle bulk goods, grain, textiles, that sort of thing." Seris turned a page in the ledger. "Why?"
