Chapter 2
I moved the guests into the adjoining salon.
Nobody left.
I wanted witnesses available until I knew who had laughed because they were uncomfortable and who had laughed because they already belonged to Delphine’s version of my house.
Sabina cleaned herself in a private washroom.
When she returned, she had changed her collar but not her expression.
I gave her water.
Not instructions.
“Tell me everything.”
She looked toward Delphine.
I followed her eyes.
Delphine stood near the windows with two bodyguards between us.
“You can speak.”
Sabina nodded.
It began five months earlier.
Small.
One footman transferred.
A cook dismissed.
Two cleaners suddenly told their schedules were changing.
Nothing worth bringing to a Mafia boss.
That was the brilliance.
Great betrayals announce themselves.
Household takeovers begin with rotas.
Delphine started issuing instructions whenever I traveled.
At first, everyone obeyed because she was my fiancée.
Then familiar staff disappeared.
Replacements arrived.
Three from hotels owned by the Sedgewick family.
One from Delphine’s childhood estate.
Another recommended by her aunt.
I looked at Delphine.
“You replaced my staff.”
“I improved them.”
Wrong word.
Sabina continued.
The replacements were not incompetent.
Quite the opposite.
Polished.
Quiet.
Observant.
Too observant.
They knew which captains sat closest to me.
Which guests used the private elevator.
Which families received late-night meetings.
Which relatives I trusted enough to enter the library without an appointment.
Information hidden inside ordinary service.
A waiter knows who whispers.
A maid knows which room is occupied.
A doorman knows who is turned away.
Control the staff and you control the invisible map of a house.
“Why Sabina?”
I asked.
She answered herself.
“Because I wouldn’t resign.”
Delphine laughed bitterly.
“You make it sound heroic.”
Sabina looked at her.
“You cut my hours.”
Silence.
“You moved me to overnight laundry.”
More silence.
“You told the kitchen not to serve me until guests finished.”
My jaw tightened.
“And tonight?”
Sabina looked at the cake.
“She wanted me to quit in front of everyone.”
Public humiliation.
Private objective.
Then she added:
“She said once I was gone, Mrs. Vale would have no one left inside.”
I froze.
“Mrs. Vale?”
Sabina nodded.
My older sister.
Evelyn Vale.
May you like
She lived thirty miles away.
And apparently my fiancée believed Sabina belonged to her.
