The Unthinkable Demand

I drove through the driveway of Preston's parents mansion. When I got off the car, I walked to the front door.

The door opened before I could raise my hand to knock. Beatrice Vance stood there, wrapped in a cream-colored sweater, her face a careful mask of calm. Her eyes, however, tracked the tense line of my shoulders, the barely-contained tremor in my jaw.

“Roman.” She said my name gently, clea