Chapter 7
Estelle went pale when I said it.
“No.”
“I know.”
“No, sir, I mean—he asked me to bring fresh towels at eleven.”
There.
11:03 service upstairs.
Graham planned everything around normal household behavior.
I enter.
Camera begins.
Estelle arrives carrying towels.
Someone photographs us.
Then perhaps Sybilla follows.
Maid and boss in bedroom.
Fiancée humiliated publicly.
A perfect scandal requiring no actual affair.
Estelle’s destroyed phone mattered now too.
If the time shifted or she tried calling anyone, Sybilla’s tantrum conveniently isolated her.
Except Sybilla did not know that.
Again.
Two plans overlapping because Graham understood everyone’s weaknesses.
Sybilla’s contempt for staff.
Alistair’s obsession with security.
My privacy.
Estelle’s financial vulnerability.
He did not invent any of them.
He arranged them.
That was more dangerous.
I looked at Alistair.
“Why does Graham want our engagement destroyed?”
He hesitated.
That was enough.
“You know something.”
Alistair sighed.
“His brother.”
Of course.
There is always a brother.
Martin Pell.
Former Rookwood captain.
I removed him two years earlier.
Not for violence.
For selling private access to my events.
Meeting times.
Guest lists.
Room assignments.
He called it networking.
I called it betrayal.
Martin disappeared from our circle.
Graham remained.
Never protested.
Too professional.
Too calm.
Apparently resentment had simply gone underground.
But destroying my engagement still seemed disproportionate.
Then Alistair said:
“Martin works for me now.”
Silence.
There.
Security consulting.
Indirectly.
Alistair hired him six months ago.
Without telling me.
Why?
“He’s good.”
My jaw tightened.
“You employed a man I expelled for selling access.”
“He wasn’t handling your properties.”
“Until tonight.”
Alistair looked toward the camera.
He understood.
Martin knew the Vane security exercise.
He could pass timing to Graham.
Brothers coordinated.
Why?
To make both Rookwood and Vane look compromised?
Maybe.
Or to force something bigger.
Then Sybilla whispered:
“My father has a merger vote next month.”
I looked at her.
“What merger?”
Vane Protective intended to absorb three smaller security firms.
If Alistair became publicly associated with a staged breach that turned into an engagement scandal, his board would turn.
So tonight’s plan could damage me—
and destroy Alistair simultaneously.
May you like
Two powerful men discredited with one camera.
Now the conspiracy had a shape.
