Meanwhile, at the Stonewell Mansion in the North District...Every member of the Stonewell Family had gathered around the large oak table in the great hall, the seats filled from end to end. Jared Stonewell sat at the head of the table, and beside him on his right was his eldest son and heir, Peter. Lila’s permanent seat, to her father’s left, directly opposite Peter, sat empty, still waiting. Debbie, the youngest daughter, was present among the elders farther along the table, and even Rita, the patriarch’s secretary, stood in her usual position just behind the old man’s chair with a stack of files gathered in her arms.Across the room, lined up at the far end opposite the oak table, stood six bald-headed practitioners in white martial robes, each one holding his wooden staff with both hands, faces raised, bodies completely still. They could have been mistaken for ornamental statues if not for the quiet energy that every person in the room

“Is that accurate?” Outside the main building of the DiLaurentis Estate, Isaac Blake stood with the group of soldiers that had just returned from the Ainsworth Mansion, his hands crossed behind his back. One of the soldiers stepped forward. “Grand Marshal, the information we received from the Ainsworths corroborates everything else our investigation has turned up.” A slow smirk spread across Isaac’s face. “Looks like the answers I needed were closer than I thought.” He glanced toward the compound. “Where are those women?” “Still tied up, Grand Marshal. They have refused to confess their involvement in the attack on Old Master DiLaurentis,” another soldier informed him. The smirk disappeared. Without a word, Isaac turned and marched away, the soldiers falling quickly into step behind him. They came to a stop in front of the large tree at the center of the DiLaurentis compound. The three women were still there, but the night had taken a visible toll on all of them. Their clothes w

Isaac Blake had been silent throughout the patriarch’s entire entrance. Now he took a step forward, and a cold smile appeared on his lips.“David, I have to give it to you. You really know how to make an entrance.” His voice carried the easy tone of a man who had not been rattled at all. “What I heard from the doctors was that you might be bedridden for a very long time. I suppose they were wrong.”“Did you decide to bully my family in my absence?” Old Mr. DiLaurentis’s voice still carried the same clear hostility. “Isaac, you may come from a higher authority, but that doesn’t give you this right.”He said it steadily, but the reality of Isaac Blake’s position was not lost on him. With his standing in the border military, Isaac was miles above the DiLaurentis family in terms of institutional power. On any normal day, even David would have chosen his words carefully around this man. But they had a history. One that the two of them understood completely, and that no one else in this co

The armed men froze on the spot and didn’t dare squeeze the triggers. Their fingers had already slid off entirely, every bit of their attention pulled toward the ordinary-looking person walking into the compound. The words from his mouth didn’t match his face at all, but they were strong enough to hold every rifle in place.Serena blinked repeatedly, unable to process what she was seeing. She couldn’t believe that the person standing at that gate was her insolent husband. Perhaps she had already been shot, and this was simply her mind producing what she wanted to see. That was what she thought until Elijah looked in their direction and their eyes met directly.“Sorry I’m late, Wifey.” He made a cross over his chest with one hand, completely unbothered by the dozens of eyes boring holes into him from every direction in the compound. “Don’t think of me as a bad husband. I’ll make this up to you, cross my heart.”What no one in that compound could see was what was happening on the insi

“You… you really want to die!” Isaac Blake’s face twisted into open rage as he jabbed a finger at Elijah. “Do you think you can throw around the name of the Supreme Marshal however you please?!”“I’m only making an assumption.” Elijah’s voice took the same calm as before. “If we assume that you are a Grand Marshal, then we can equally assume that I am the Supreme Marshal right now.”Uncle Felix stomped and hurled words on him immediately. “Surnamed Langston, who invited you here to cause trouble for our DiLaurentis family?! The name of the Supreme Marshal is not something to be joked about!”The family members around him nodded in nervous agreement.People wouldn’t even dare to casually mention the overall head of the border military in private conversation, let alone say what had just been said out loud, in the direct presence of men from the border military itself. This Elijah Langston truly wanted to die today.Serena’s teeth pressed together slightly. This was one of her deepest