No one at Whitmore Plantation could have imagined that the mistress’s secret would ignite a slow-burning tragedy years in the making.In the spring of 1841, Katherine Whitmore—a woman who possessed everything except happiness—began to notice Sarah, the nineteen-year-old enslaved girl newly purchased to serve as her personal maid. Inside a twelve-bedroom mansion filled with silk gowns, imported china, and the soft notes of evening piano music, Katherine moved like a ghost within her own life, trapped in a cold marriage to Thomas Whitmore—a man whose cruelty was whispered about long before it was ever proven.Everything shifted on a dim afternoon when Katherine lay in bed with one of her familiar headaches and caught Sarah staring out the window.“I was thinking about the birds,” Sarah murmured softly. “They can fly wherever they wish.”It was such a simple confession. Yet in that fragile moment, two women standing on opposite sides of power recognized the same invisible cage—one bound by law, the other by marriage.Secret readings in shuttered rooms. Glances held too long in mirrors. Hands brushing under the pretense of routine. Something unnamed began to grow between them—dangerous, tender, impossible.Then, one winter night, Katherine crossed the final line.But they were not the only ones watching.Thomas Whitmore had never believed in coincidence. And when he announced he would be leaving the plantation for four days on business in Richmond, Katherine had no idea the real darkness was only just beginning…