Chapter 4
Searching for it, Mia wandered into the east wing, a corridor Elena had specifically forbidden.
A door stood partly open.
Inside, Julian met a man Mia did not recognize.
She watched Julian slide a thick folder across a table.
The stranger hid it beneath his coat.
Mia had no idea she had witnessed betrayal.
She only understood that adults were conducting important business.
When Julian turned away, a small folded paper fell beside his chair.
Mia noticed the hawk stamped at the bottom.
She recognized it immediately.
Uncle Julian’s picture.
She slipped inside, picked it up, and hid it in the breast pocket of her tiny black suit.
That evening Julian discovered it missing.
He reconstructed every moment of the meeting.
The corridor.
The door.
The folder.
The paper.
Someone had taken it.
By nightfall he learned the housekeeper’s child had been seen in the east wing.
At eight o’clock, Julian casually visited the staff quarters.
Elena opened her door.
“Mr. Mercer.”
“Routine security check.”
Behind her, Mia slept holding an old brown teddy bear.
Julian spoke pleasantly.
His eyes searched everything.
The bed.
The wardrobe.
The sewing table.
And the little black suit hanging from a hook.
He smiled at Elena.
“Good night.”
When the door closed, he stood motionless in the hallway.
The child had the paper.
A three-year-old could not understand it.
Her mother could.
Therefore Julian needed the paper before Elena found it.
Two days later Elena noticed someone had searched her room.
Nothing obvious was missing.
That made it worse.
Mia’s drawings had been replaced in the wrong order.
Folded clothing had shifted.
A man Elena did not recognize passed her twice in the staff corridor.
Elena had survived a difficult childhood and an even more difficult marriage before becoming a single mother. She had learned the value of noticing things people expected frightened women not to notice.
That night she checked Mia’s belongings.
The next morning, while Mia ate oatmeal, she suddenly announced, “I forgot to give Uncle Julian his important paper.”
Elena’s spoon stopped halfway to her mouth.
“What paper?”
Mia jumped down and returned with the black suit.
She reached inside.
Elena unfolded the note beneath the table.
Names.
Addresses.
Times.
A Brooklyn warehouse.
A Long Island property.
Two coded references she had overheard enough conversations to recognize.
At the bottom was the hawk.
Elena folded it immediately.
“Where did you get this?”
“It fell down.”
“Where?”
“Uncle Julian’s room.”
Elena’s blood went cold.
“Mia, listen carefully. Did Uncle Julian see you?”
“No.”
“Did anybody?”
“I don’t think.”
Elena forced herself to smile.
“You did nothing wrong.”
“But it was important.”
“Yes.”
Her voice nearly broke.
“It was very important.”
She needed to put the paper directly into Luca’s hands.
Not an assistant’s.
Not a guard’s.
May you like
His.
But Julian controlled too many people inside the house.
