Chapter 8
Grace returned to staff duty the next morning.
Vanessa laughed when she saw her.
Perfect.
“Back where you belong.”
Grace carried a breakfast tray into the sunroom.
Vanessa sat beside the windows in a silk robe.
Marcus stood near the fireplace.
Neither knew Damon was listening from the adjoining service corridor.
Grace lowered her eyes.
Exactly as before.
Vanessa smiled.
“Pregnancy finally teach you humility?”
Grace said nothing.
“Good.”
Then:
“Maybe the baby will have better manners than its mother.”
Marcus laughed.
Grace placed coffee down.
Vanessa saw the bracelet.
Her smile changed.
“Take that off.”
Grace’s fingers touched it.
“My mother gave it to me.”
“Your mother is dead.”
The words were casual.
Cruel.
“Dead women don’t own jewelry.”
Grace lowered her eyes.
Vanessa leaned closer.
“Take it off.”
“No.”
Silence.
Marcus turned.
Vanessa’s face hardened.
“What?”
Grace repeated:
“No.”
The word was barely above a whisper.
Still enormous.
Vanessa stood.
“You think Damon sleeping with you changed your rank?”
Grace did not answer.
Vanessa smiled.
“He’ll get bored.”
“Men like him always do.”
Then crueler:
“And when that baby starts crying at three in the morning, he’ll remember why women like you belong downstairs.”
Grace’s hands trembled.
Vanessa saw.
Enjoyed it.
“There she is.”
She touched Grace’s chin.
“Still scared.”
Grace allowed it.
Damon’s hands clenched in the next room.
He stayed.
This was Grace’s choice.
Vanessa whispered:
“Where is the key?”
Grace said:
“I don’t know.”
“Liar.”
“I never knew the bracelet opened.”
Vanessa’s eyes narrowed.
Believable.
Marcus stepped closer.
“Then why did Margaret tell you to go to Cross?”
Grace looked at him.
“What?”
He stopped.
Too late.
Vanessa turned.
“Marcus.”
Grace’s heart pounded.
Her mother had never told Marcus that.
How did he know?
Grace whispered:
“You heard her.”
Marcus’s face hardened.
Vanessa stepped in.
“Your mother talked too much near staff.”
Grace looked at her.
“No.”
Then:
“You were there.”
Silence.
Marcus smiled.
Wrong choice.
“You want to know where I was?”
He leaned closer.
“At the stairs.”
Grace stopped breathing.
Damon closed his eyes.
There.
Marcus continued.
“Your mother thought she could run.”
Vanessa whispered:
“Shut up.”
He didn’t.
“She thought that bracelet made her important.”
Grace’s voice shook.
“What happened?”
Marcus smiled cruelly.
“She tripped.”
Vanessa shouted:
“Marcus.”
Grace stared.
“No.”
He leaned closer.
“People fall when they panic.”
Grace’s eyes filled.
Then Marcus added the sentence that ended everything.
“She should’ve handed me the bracelet before I pushed her.”
Silence.
He froze.
Vanessa closed her eyes.
Damon stepped into the sunroom.
Marcus went white.
Grace did not move.
May you like
She had waited ten months for truth.
It had finally spoken in Marcus’s own voice.
