She has built her whole plan on knowing exactly how little proof we would have.”

And she had.

That very afternoon, Delilah came into the center of town dressed in dark mourning clothes, weeping to anyone who would gather, telling the crowd that she had been frantically searching for her precious missing niece for days.

She spun a story — that Vivienne had run off with a traveling merchant, that the man had likely beaten her and abandoned her in the woods, that it was all so tragic.

“I forgive her with all my heart,” she said, dabbing at dry eyes with a handkerchief.