The Man They Threw Out of City Hall

at her as if she had slapped him.

The old man swallowed.

“My name is Elias Ward.”

Something flickered across Mara’s face.

Ward.

Everyone in Briarwood knew that name, though most of us did not know why. Ward Hall. Ward Library. Ward Children’s Shelter. Ward Foundation plaques appeared all over the city, always tied to an old family whose last known heiress continue reading …