Chapter 2 - The Guest Who Was a Maid
|
The ambulance lights painted the marble hall red and blue.
I sat on the bench with both hands around my stomach.
My baby had gone very quiet inside me.
That silence terrified me more than the pain had.
Vincent knelt in front of me.
"Clara, tell me exactly where it hurts."
"Low."
"Like a band tightening."
"Then it lets go."
The paramedic took my blood pressure with gentle hands.
I told her about the suitcase.
I told her about the stairs.
I told her about the moment my foot missed the step.
Her face changed when I said twenty-three steps.
Vincent heard every word.
His jaw tightened with every sentence I spoke.
The paramedic helped me onto a stretcher even though I protested.
"I can walk."
Vincent answered before she could.
"You will not walk another step in this house tonight."
At the hospital, bright lights burned my eyes.
Someone placed a monitor against my stomach.
The room filled with a fast, steady rhythm.
My daughter's heartbeat.
I covered my mouth and cried.
She was alive.
She was still with me.
Doctor Harris came in with my chart against his chest.
"Clara, I need you to breathe slowly."
"The baby is stable right now."
"Right now?"
His expression told me to listen carefully.
"Your body is giving you a warning."
"Stress can trigger early labor at this stage."
"Lifting can do the same."
"Falling could have taken both of you today."
My hands moved protectively over my daughter.
"I did not choose to carry that suitcase."
"I know."
"Vincent told me everything on the phone."
Doctor Harris sat down beside my bed.
"You need rest."
"You need monitoring tonight."
"You need to stop worrying about money for one evening."
He wrote strict instructions in my chart.
No lifting.
No stairs without help.
No stress that could be avoided.
I laughed once through my tears.
Stress was waiting for me in a black suit back at the mansion.
They kept me until midnight for observation.
Vincent was at the entrance when they wheeled me back.
His sleeves were rolled to his elbows.
"The doctor called me."
"I told him he could."
"Your daughter is stable."
"She is."
"And you?"
"I am still here."
Something in his face softened and broke at the same time.
He pushed my wheelchair himself.
Vincent stopped beside the grand staircase.
I looked up at those twenty-three marble steps.
My stomach tightened at the memory.
"I am not taking you up there."
"My room is in the staff wing."
"Not anymore."
"Sir—"
"You are not staff tonight, Clara."
"You are a guest in this house."
"And you are a witness under my protection."
He guided me to the guest suite on the ground floor.
It had a wide bed with white linen.
Someone had placed my small overnight bag on the chair.
I stared at that bag.
"You sent people to my apartment?"
His face changed immediately.
"The building manager called about the break-in."
"Daniel, the head of security, sent two men with the police."
"They brought back what the intruders left behind."
My knees weakened.
"The wooden box was already gone."
"Richard made sure we knew that."
I sat down slowly on the edge of the bed.
My apartment had been searched.
The last safe place I owned was not safe anymore.
"You will stay here until we know what Richard wants."
"I cannot owe you this."
"You owe me nothing."
His voice dropped lower.
"If anything, this house owes you."
Shouting rose from the entrance hall before I could answer.
Vincent closed his eyes for one second.
"Stay here, Clara."
He left before I could argue.
I did not lock the door.
I stood behind it and listened like the servant I still was.
"You cannot throw me out of my own home!"
"This was never your home."
Vincent sounded terrifyingly calm.
"You were a guest here too."
"You are choosing her over me?"
"I am choosing the truth over you."
"My father will destroy you."
"Your father is welcome to try."
Detective Laura Mitchell had arrived with two officers.
Now she was sealing Elena's suitcase in clear plastic.
She was photographing the false compartment.
She was placing Elena's phone into an evidence bag.
Vanessa saw the bag and started crying again.
"Vincent, please."
"You are making a mistake."
"No."
"The mistake was believing you."
The detective asked her clear questions in a steady voice.
"When did you learn Elena Moretti was pregnant?"
"That afternoon."
"The afternoon she disappeared?"
Vanessa hesitated too long.
"My father told me she was expecting."
"You knew that day."
"I did not know what he planned."
"What did you think he planned, Vanessa?"
"I thought she would sign the papers and leave."
"The forged papers."
Vanessa began sobbing.
"I never signed anything."
"My father arranged everything."
"He arranged the papers."
"He arranged the guards."
"He arranged what everyone told you."
"And you?"
"What did you arrange?"
Her voice dropped to a whisper.
"I arranged to survive him."
The detective asked the question I was holding my breath for.
"Did you know Elena Moretti was alive?"
"No."
"I swear I did not know."
"I thought she had run away and left everything."
"And Grace?"
Vanessa began crying harder.
"I never knew where they took her."
"My father never told me."
"He said the child was placed and that was all."
The detective told Vanessa she would need a formal statement.
She also told her she was not free to contact Richard.
Vanessa laughed through her tears.
"No one is free from Richard."
Footsteps moved toward the front doors.
A car door opened outside.
A car door closed.
Vanessa was gone from the mansion.
Vincent stood alone beside the staircase.
Elena's wedding ring rested in his open palm.
"She knew, Clara."
"Not everything."
"But enough."
A soft knock came from the kitchen doorway.
Rosa Delgado stood there with a tray in her hands.
Her silver hair was pinned back as always.
She carried a bowl of soup and a glass of water.
"Doctor's orders were food and rest."
She set the tray on the table beside my bed.
"Eat while it is warm, mija."
My phone buzzed inside my bag.
The screen showed an unknown number.
My heart stopped before I even opened it.
"Clara, this is Elena."
"I am so sorry Daniel died protecting my daughter."
"I am sorry my suitcase nearly cost you yours."
"Please believe that I never wanted you in this."
I read it three times.
Another message appeared beneath the first.
"Do not trust everyone in Vincent's house."
"One of them reports to Richard."
"One of them has reported on you since the day you were hired."
Then a third message arrived.
It was only one line.
"Ask Rosa what she makes for a little girl every Sunday."
The spoon slipped from Rosa's hand.
It struck the tray with a bright, terrible sound.
Her face went completely white.
"Rosa?"
My voice came out as a whisper.
She did not look at the phone.
She looked at me.
And I understood that she already knew whose name I was about to say.
May you like
"Grace."
The color left her face entirely.
