Chapter 4
Alexander asked Rebecca to review every agreement connected to Maison Privé.
She warned him that household contracts were not automatically sinister simply because Veronica recommended them.
“I understand.”
“Do you?”
“Yes.”
“You look like you’ve already convicted six people.”
“Only one.”
Rebecca sighed.
The review found something ordinary first.
Maison Privé had provided temporary staff for several Vaughn events.
Invoices were high but legitimate.
Then Rebecca found a draft agreement.
It would place Maison Privé in charge of virtually all household staffing after Alexander and Veronica married.
Recruitment.
Payroll administration.
Scheduling.
Replacement.
Training.
Performance reviews.
More than thirty employees across three properties.
The estimated annual contract exceeded $2 million.
Alexander had never seen it.
His name appeared on the internal proposal as:
Final approval pending wedding completion.
Rebecca tapped that line.
“That might simply mean she expected to ask you later.”
“Then why were employees already marked for removal?”
“Good question.”
Maison Privé’s attorney claimed it had been discussing scenarios only.
No contract existed.
No signature.
No fraud yet.
Alexander accepted the distinction.
He wanted facts.
Not satisfying assumptions.
At home, another issue emerged.
Sofia refused to let Evelyn help her change clothes.
Only Alexander could.
When he asked why, she whispered:
“Veronica says servants get ugly clothes.”
Alexander froze.
“What did she say about you?”
Sofia looked down.
“Mommy was servant.”
Caroline had not been a servant.
But her mother had worked as a hotel housekeeper before Caroline went to college.
Alexander knew Veronica was aware of that.
He had told her once during a conversation about Caroline’s childhood.
The phrase in the dressing room returned.
A servant’s child belongs on her knees.
It had not been random.
Veronica had chosen a specific humiliation tied to Sofia’s mother.
Alexander felt anger rising.
Dr. Brooks had warned him not to turn Sofia into a source.
So he stopped asking.
That evening, he sat alone in Caroline’s old reading room.
For the first time, the insult hurt in a way beyond the scene itself.
Veronica had not only degraded Sofia.
She had tried to redefine where the child belonged by turning her mother’s working-class history into shame.
But that still did not explain the fake staffing orders.
May you like
Or the disabled camera.
Or why Maison Privé seemed prepared to enter the house before the wedding had even happened.
