Chapter 4: What She Went to Find
I should have stayed where I was.
I had Lily in my arms.
The ballroom was still full of guests.
Nathaniel was standing with Patricia, speaking in a low voice over the open folder.
Every sensible instinct I had said: take your daughter to the side study, sit down, wait for this to be over.
I handed Lily to the nearest person I trusted.
That was Mrs.
Okafor, the head of catering, who had worked Cross events for twelve years and who took Lily from me without a single question, just pressed her lips together and nodded once.
I followed Vanessa.
The west corridor was empty.
The sounds of the ballroom faded behind me.
My footsteps on the marble were too loud and I slowed them, moving close to the wall.
The study door was not fully closed.
I stopped six feet away.
"I need the drive." Vanessa's voice.
Low and clipped.
She was on the phone.
"The one from the desk drawer.
The black one.
I need it gone before he comes upstairs."
A pause.
"I don't care.
Flush it, burn it, I don't care what you do with it.
Just make sure it's not there when he opens that drawer."
Another pause.
Longer.
"Then you're useless to me." Her voice went flat.
"I'll handle it myself."
The sound of a call ending.
I pressed myself against the wall and did not move.
The door swung open.
Vanessa stepped into the corridor and stopped.
We looked at each other.
Her hair was still perfect.
Her dress was still perfect.
The only thing that had changed was her eyes.
Something behind them had gone very cold.
"Elena," she said.
"Miss Lowell."
"How long have you been standing there?"
"I was looking for the powder room," I said.
"I took the wrong corridor."
She studied my face.
I had spent five years keeping my face neutral in difficult moments.
I kept it neutral now.
"The powder room is the other direction," she said.
"Thank you."
I turned to go.
"Elena."
I stopped.
"You've worked here a long time," she said.
"Five years is a long time.
You have a daughter to think about.
A job.
Stability." She let that sit for a moment.
"People who make themselves inconvenient in situations like this one tend to find that stability becomes…
fragile."
I turned back around.
"Are you threatening me?" I said.
"I'm giving you practical advice." Her voice was perfectly pleasant.
"Go back to the ballroom.
Take your daughter home.
Whatever you think you heard, you didn't hear it.
That's the practical choice."
I looked at her for a moment.
"My daughter was hungry," I said.
"She touched one chocolate.
You grabbed her wrist and told her she would never be more than a servant."
Vanessa blinked.
"That's what I heard tonight," I said.
"That's the only thing I heard."
I walked back toward the ballroom.
My hands were shaking by the time I reached the corridor junction.
I pressed them flat against my thighs and kept walking.
Nathaniel was no longer standing with Patricia near the chocolate fountain.
He was at the far end of the ballroom, near the terrace doors, speaking to a man I recognized as his estate attorney, Gerald Marsh.
Gerald had a phone to his ear and his free hand was moving in short, precise gestures.
Patricia was still at the table.
She was watching the staircase.
I crossed to her.
"She went to the study," I said quietly.
"She was on the phone.
She told someone to take a drive from the desk drawer and get rid of it."
Patricia looked at me.
"A black drive," I said.
"From the desk drawer.
Those were her words."
Patricia's jaw tightened.
She turned toward Nathaniel.
She didn't need to cross the room.
He was already looking at us.
He had seen my face.
He said something to Gerald, who nodded and kept talking into the phone.
Then Nathaniel walked toward us, and I watched his expression shift as he read something in mine that I hadn't quite managed to hide.
"What happened?" he said.
"She's in your study," Patricia said.
"Elena heard her on the phone."
He looked at me.
"She told someone to take a black drive from your desk drawer," I said.
"She said she wanted it gone before you came upstairs."
He didn't ask me if I was sure.
He turned and walked toward the west corridor.
Gerald Marsh lowered his phone and followed him without being asked.
I stood beside Patricia and watched them go.
"What's on the drive?" I asked.
May you like
Patricia was quiet for a moment.
"Everything," she said.
