Chapter 2 - WHAT WAS IN THE DRAWER
Ronan sent Ivy to the library with the house doctor.
She refused.
“I’m fine.”
Dr. Mercer stared at the blood soaking her sleeve.
“You’re bleeding on a carpet worth more than my medical degree.”
“Then I’ll stand somewhere cheaper.”
Despite everything, Emily laughed through her tears.
Ronan heard it.
His mouth almost moved.
Almost.
“Library,” he said.
Ivy looked at him.
“I don’t take orders from you.”
Three guards went still.
Ronan’s eyebrows lifted.
Ivy immediately realized she had probably just said something no employee in Blackwood House had ever said before.
But she was tired.
She was bleeding.
And she had been humiliated in front of two hundred people.
Ronan surprised everyone.
“Fair.”
He looked at Dr. Mercer.
“Ask her.”
The doctor sighed.
“Would you please let me make sure you don’t need stitches?”
Ivy nodded.
“Sure.”
Ronan watched her walk away.
Vivienne watched him watch her.
That was worse.
“Are we really doing this?” Vivienne snapped. “She is staff.”
Ronan turned.
“She has a name.”
Vivienne laughed bitterly.
“Oh, please.”
Ronan’s security chief, Marcus Kane, entered carrying a small leather folder.
Marcus had been with Ronan for fifteen years and had the cold eyes of a man who had buried too many friends.
He handed the folder over.
“We found this behind the false panel in Miss Hale’s dresser.”
Vivienne went white.
Ronan opened it.
Photographs.
Bank statements.
Copies of legal documents.
And a list of names.
His name was at the top.
Ivy’s was near the bottom.
Ronan’s face changed.
“What is this?”
Vivienne folded her arms.
“I don’t know.”
Marcus gave a humorless smile.
“That’s strange. It was hidden under your underwear.”
Vivienne glared at him.
Ronan flipped another page.
Payments to a private investigator.
Payments to a clinic.
Payments to a man named Darren Pike.
Then he found a photograph.
Ivy leaving a neighborhood hospital three weeks earlier.
Another.
Ivy at a pharmacy.
Another.
Ivy sitting beside an older woman in a wheelchair.
Ronan looked up.
“Why were you having her followed?”
Vivienne’s voice sharpened.
“I wasn’t.”
Marcus stepped forward.
“We verified the account ten minutes ago. The payments came from your personal trust.”
“Then someone used my account.”
“Someone also used your signature.”
“I have assistants.”
Ronan closed the folder.
“Stop.”
Vivienne did.
He rarely raised his voice.
He did not need to.
Ronan walked toward her.
“You beat a woman in front of my guests.”
“She embarrassed me.”
“You had her followed.”
“I said I didn’t.”
“You lied to my face.”
Vivienne’s eyes filled.
She was good.
Ivy would later understand just how good.
“Ronan, I love you.”
For one second, the room softened.
Then Marcus’s phone rang.
He answered.
Listened.
His expression darkened.
“Ronan.”
“What?”
Marcus looked toward the library.
“The investigator Hale hired just tried to enter the east service gate.”
Ronan’s eyes narrowed.
“And?”
“He had a gun.”
Vivienne whispered, “Oh my God.”
May you like
Marcus looked directly at her.
“And a photograph of Ivy Lancaster in his pocket.”
