Chapter 2
I took Daphne’s phone myself.
She resisted only once.
A mistake.
I did not strike her.
I simply looked at the bodyguard nearest the door.
He understood.
Daphne sat.
I unlocked nothing.
Did not need to.
Her screen lit from an incoming notification.
A folder preview appeared.
S.V. HOUSE COMMANDS.
My initials.
My stomach turned.
I placed the phone on the table.
“Who can open this?”
Daphne said nothing.
Tessa spoke.
“She can.”
Daphne looked at her with pure hatred.
I stepped slightly in front of Tessa.
Not dramatic.
Enough.
“Open it.”
Daphne laughed.
“No.”
I leaned closer.
“Then we wait here all night while every person in this room tells me which version of my voice they heard.”
That frightened her more.
Good.
One by one, staff spoke.
My driver heard me dismiss him for disloyalty.
My chef heard me order that Tessa lose meals for “stealing.”
A gardener heard me say older employees were becoming useless.
Two guards heard me instruct them to stop reporting household matters directly to me.
My steward heard me say Daphne now spoke with my full authority inside the mansion.
All false.
All strategically similar.
Every recording severed a direct line to me.
Staff no longer came to Sebastian.
They went through Daphne.
My house had developed a second chain of command beneath my nose.
I asked the steward:
“How long?”
“Six weeks.”
Six.
My engagement had been announced eight weeks earlier.
Almost immediately.
Daphne finally spoke.
“You were impossible to reach.”
I turned.
“What?”
“You’re gone constantly. Meetings. Trips. Dinners.”
“So you forged my authority?”
“I kept the house moving.”
Tessa whispered:
“You hurt people.”
Daphne snapped:
“You were insubordinate.”
I looked at her.
“According to whose order?”
She stopped.
Exactly.
Then my steward said something that changed the room.
“Boss, the recordings were not just sent to staff.”
I looked at him.
“Who else?”
He swallowed.
“Your captains.”
Daphne closed her eyes.
May you like
This was no household manipulation.
She had been building a second Sebastian outside the house too.
