Two Hours Later in Chaz's Estate

Chaz and Ella sat with each other on his black velvet couch. Patchwork blankets wrapped around them as they sipped Cinnamon Bliss tea. Each sip reminded them of iced breakfast buns.

"Your friend is an hour late. We still need to chat about what you said to me earlier about loving me." Chaz left his cup on the coffee table. He tossed the blankets behind his couch.

Ella ignored him, finished her tea, and placed her cup next to Chaz's. "He probably got caught in the storm."

"I have a question; you can't tell me this Quincy weirdo is for real."

Ella nodded, 'yes' as her face frowned. "He is in love with her, and unlike you, he won't wait over nine years to tell her, and he also wouldn't risk her life."

"Ella, you are cruel." His fingers brushed her elbow.

"Chaz, you could hurt the Mark Board, if you destroy your father financially. He is a secret member," Ella said.

"I knew Dad was trying to kill me, but he can't be a member, he isn't a citizen." Chaz shrank away from her.

"I saw him in a Mark house with Ralphy when I was a child. Chaz, I was in a workhouse for a year, not finishing school."

"You couldn't have received the Mark. You're breathtaking," Chaz said.

"My toes are deformed. Why do you think I wear slippers in the pool and at the beach?"

"I thought you were weird." He tussled her hair.

The doorbell rang, and Chaz answered it.

A huge puddle formed underneath Cavalier Low's feet. "I hate the rainy season. This was not a light shower the media claimed it would be."

"It will last until Christmas this year due to the east wind," Ella said.

"Stop chatting about the weather. Cavalier Low, why does my birth father want me dead?"

Cavalier Low shook the rain off his body and onto Chaz's handwoven carpet. "Yolanda and your father both wish you dead because you are turning Marked women into free women, and you publicly loved Zeda. She needed to kill Zeda for clout. Yolanda also sells women to men on other worlds."

"Cavalier, I disavowed the fight clubs." Chaz sat on his coffee table.

Cavalier Low glanced at the door. "I'm talking to the Ministry and the Unicorn government about bringing them down."

"You're trying to save your hide." Chaz glared at Cavalier low.

Tears fell from Cavalier's eyes. "Yolanda and Brill knew which girls went to what Mark homes. They abducted my wife, Mina, but Brill felt bad. Mina is Quincy's half-sister. Yolanda holds my wife's life over my head. If I don't do what she says, she will sell her."

"Yolanda is disgusting," Chaz said.

"Yes, every moment I live with the fact that Yolanda might sell, torture, or kill my wife. She is trying to force me to kill Zeda for my wife, and while she'll keep her word. I couldn't live with myself."

"A member of the board couldn't be married to a woman of three Marks," Ella said.

Cavalier Low trembled. "Brill decided she was going to bring Yolanda down. Her lawyers are holding the info of my wife's whereabouts, but they tell me they will send it soon."