A few days later.

The carriage bearing the Alvarez crest rattled up the gravel drive of Snow Manor, but the air didn’t carry the usual lightness of a daughter returning home. It felt heavy, like the arrival of an invading force.

Evelina looked out the window at the ivy-covered stone walls of her childhood home.

In her first life, every time she returned here, she had felt smaller; a tiny girl trying to fit back into the cramped expectations of being a good daughter.

She had walked through these doors with a bowed head, hoping her father would notice her new learnings or her improved etiquette.

Now, as the carriage door was pulled open by a footman who looked startled by her cold expression, Evelina stepped out with the weight of a sovereign.

She didn’t wait for an escort. She signaled with a sharp tilt of her head, and two Alvarez guards, men she had hand-selected for their size and their absolute lack of sociability, stepped out behind her.

Their black-and-silver plate armor clanked, a stark contrast to the delicate, aging elegance of the Snow estate.

"Your Grace!" the butler stammered, bowing so low his forehead nearly hit the gravel,"The Baron... he did not expect you so soon. He is in the drawing room, preparing a... a welcoming committee."

"Move," Evelina said. She didn’t raise her voice, but the butler scrambled out of her path as if she had brandished a sword.

She marched through the foyer, her heels clicking against the marble. She remembered every crack in these floorboards, every pillar behind which she had hidden as a child.

But the ghosts of the past found no purchase on her today. She carried a wax-sealed legal scroll in her left hand, a notice of foreclosure.

The drawing room doors were open.

Baron Snow sat in his favorite high-backed chair, a glass of expensive brandy in his hand and a look of practiced pity on his face.

He had heard the rumors of the ’Pauper Duchess’ and the Duke’s departure.

He had even sent his messenger but he came back with a envelope full of ashes some time ago. As angry as he was, he believed that Evelina was acting up due to her current state.

From the look on the Baron’s face, it was obvious that he was ready to play the role of the benevolent patriarch, offering words of comfort and secretly look for a way to squeeze more blood from the stone.

"Evelina, my dear child," the Baron began, setting his glass down and spreading his arms wide, "I heard of your... difficulties. Truly, my heart bleeds. If you have come for a small loan to tide you over..."

"I haven’t come for a loan, Father," Evelina interrupted, her voice cutting through his fake warmth like a winter gale. She tossed the legal scroll onto the table in front of him. It unrolled with a harsh ’snap.’

The Baron blinked, his eyes scanning the document. His expression shifted from pity to a confused, almost patronizing amusement, "A demand for the dowry? Fifty thousand gold? Evelina, we’ve discussed this. The bandits on the Northern Road—"

"The bandits don’t exist," Evelina said, pulling a chair out and sitting across from him. She didn’t wait for an invitation.

Her two guards flanked her, their shadows falling across the Baron’s face, "The money never left your vaults. Or rather, it left, but it didn’t go North. It went into Selene’s personal accounts and into your... other interests."

The Baron froze for a second before he let out a sharp laugh.

He leaned back, regaining his composure, "You’ve been listening to kitchen gossip, haven’t you? But dear, you can’t make such claims without proof. How would it reflect on us? That money is gone. As your father, I find this accusation insulting. You should be grateful that at least, I helped you get the Alvarez name."

"I have three days, Father," Evelina said, her voice dropping to a low note, "In three days, I want the full fifty thousand gold transferred to the Alvarez vault. Not a copper less."

"And if I don’t?" the Baron sneered, his mask of fatherly love finally slipping momentarily to reveal the ugly greed beneath. "What will you do? Complain to the Duke? He barely tolerates you so if you go to him, he’ll scold you for bothering him with our family squabbles."

Evelina leaned forward.

The air in the room grew still. An unnatural chill began to seep into the furniture. She saw the Baron’s hand tremble as he reached for his brandy.

She leaned in until she was inches from his face, her voice fell in a whisper that only he could hear.

"The Velvet Cellar," she murmured.

The Baron froze.

"Villa in the south..." Evelina watched as the Baron sat calmly, seemingly unfazed by the fact that she knew her dowry money was used to buy her sister a luxury villa.

"Gilded hand," she continued, her eyes fixed on his. "And the Midnight Lantern."

She watched as the blood slowly drained from Baron Snow’s cheeks when he heard the latter words.

Those weren’t just names; they were the most notorious underground gambling dens in the Empire, places where the stakes weren’t just gold or silver, but blood, land, and political favors.

And amusingly enough, places like that were strictly forbidden by the Emperor’s latest decree against noble corruption.

"I know exactly how much you lost at the Gilded Hand last month, Father," Evelina whispered, "I know about the promissory notes you signed, using the Snow ancestral lands as collateral. And I know that the ’bandits’ who stole my dowry bear a striking resemblance to the debt collectors who were seen leaving your study the night before my wedding."

The silence that followed was suffocating. The Baron’s mouth worked, but no sound came out.

His skin had turned a sickly shade, the color of curdled milk. He looked at his daughter, but he didn’t see the obedient girl he had raised.

"How..." he finally managed to choke out, his voice cracking, "How do you know those names? Those places don’t..." People like Evelina didn’t even know of the existence of these places.

Evelina stood up, the movement slow and regal.

She signaled to her guards, who stepped forward with a synchronized stomp of their boots.

She looked down at the man who had traded her future for a hand of cards, and she felt nothing but a cold detachment.

"The Snows are very good at keeping secrets, Father," Evelina’s voice echoes in the Ornate room, "You spent eighteen years teaching me that the truth is a luxury we can’t afford. You taught me to hide, to lie, and to watch."

She paused at the doorway, her silhouette framed by the morning light, looking back over her shoulder with a piercing gaze.

"But you forgot one thing," she said, tapping her temple with a gloved finger, "I was always a very fast learner. And while you were busy hiding your crimes, I was busy finding them. You have three days. If the gold isn’t in my vault by sunset on the third day, the Imperial Magistrates will receive an anonymous tip about the guest list at the Midnight Lantern. And we both know what the Emperor does to nobles who break his edicts."

"Evelina!" the Baron gasped, reaching out a shaking hand, "You... you wouldn’t destroy your own house!"

"The House of Snow destroyed itself the moment it sold me," Evelina didn’t look back, "I’m just here to collect the bill. You can try me."

Baron Snow collapsed in his place, realizing that this was no less than the doom of his name.

As Evelina walked out of the manor, the System screen flickered in her vision.

[Notification: ’Family Betrayal’ processed]

[Target ’Baron Snow’ is 90% Terrified]

[Reward: 650 Heart-Wrecker Points awarded!]

[Current Balance: 1650 Points]

Evelina felt the weight of the points in her mind, this was a bit closer to the amount needed for the steam engine blueprints.

She tamped her excitement for the moment. Because she was not done here yet.