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Graves nods. “I’ll add it to your planner.”

Setting the report aside, I place the cloth napkin in my lap and focus on the meal Graves has placed in front of me. Scrambled egg whites, chicken sausage, avocado. Lifting my fork, I announce: “Today is Day One. You will not speak unlessspoken to. You will not ask questions. You will be bathed, fed, and trained. But privileges must be earned.”

A soft clink.

“In the past, I would have sent you away,” I say calmly, “made you someone else's problem. But I’ve learned the hard way that method isn’t effective, at least not in the long run. I can’t rely on others to take care of what’s important to me, and I accept that I’ll need to take a more direct involvement in your welfare and training.”

Only then do I glance across the room. The cage is tucked inside the massive wardrobe, metal bars custom-forged in the shape of thorns. She stands with her hands clenched around the bars, a thin cotton dress covering her curves. The new collar–black leather, gold pentagram gleaming at her throat like a brand.My brand.

Her eyes are wide. No tears. Not now. Just that trembling, suspended edge of fear and fury. Something darker she’s still too proud to name.

I fold my napkin and place it neatly on the table.

“Your disobedience was a kind of madness, and madness is something I can not, and will not, abide. Not in this house. Not by my wife.” I rise and continue. “But I will fix you, wicked one. We start with silence. Then stillness. Then surrender.”

I walk over slowly, crouching before the cage.

“You were given to me, Arianette. I made an oath.” I smile, warm, practiced, patient. All the things I wasn’t with my first wife and my son. I lost them both and I will not fail again. “‘To own and to protect. To command and to punish. To keep until death claims you both.’ That was my oath, Arianette, and I want you to understand,” I slide my hand through the grate and hook my finger through the loop in the collar. “I never go back on my word.”