Chapter 9 - THE TRAP
Rosa stared at Victoria.
“You got me hired?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Victoria wiped a tear from beneath one eye.
“Because I needed to know what you wanted.”
“I wanted a paycheck.”
“I didn’t believe that.”
“So you put me inside Ethan’s house?”
Victoria laughed.
“Where I could watch you.”
Ethan’s face turned cold.
“You engineered this?”
“No.”
She pointed toward the piano.
“I didn’t plan that.”
“Then what did you plan?”
Victoria hesitated.
Rosa understood first.
“You wanted to catch me doing something.”
Victoria said nothing.
“Stealing?”
Silence.
“Trying to get near Ethan?”
Still nothing.
Ethan stepped closer.
“Answer her.”
Victoria snapped, “Fine!”
Her voice echoed.
“I told the estate security supervisor to document anything suspicious.”
Mrs. Hall gasped.
Ethan turned to her.
“Who?”
“Mr. Dane.”
Ethan looked toward the head of estate security.
Dane had been edging toward the door.
“Stay.”
Two of Ethan’s private guards blocked him.
Dane raised both hands.
“I was following instructions.”
“Whose?”
Victoria’s eyes narrowed.
Dane answered, “Ms. Langford’s.”
Victoria cursed.
Rosa felt sick.
“What did you plant?”
Dane looked at the floor.
“Nothing.”
Ethan stepped closer.
“Wrong answer.”
Dane swallowed.
“A bracelet.”
Rosa’s face went white.
Mrs. Hall whispered, “The diamond bracelet?”
Rosa remembered.
Three months ago, Victoria had claimed a bracelet vanished after a party.
Staff lockers had been searched.
Rosa’s hadn’t.
Because Mrs. Hall refused without cause.
Victoria had screamed about it for an hour.
Rosa looked at her.
“You were going to frame me.”
Victoria shouted, “I wanted you gone!”
Lily began crying.
Rosa scooped her up.
Ethan looked at Victoria as if he had never seen her before.
“You were willing to send my daughter’s mother to jail.”
“I didn’t know how else to make you safe!”
“Safe from what?”
“Her!”
Rosa’s face tightened.
Victoria continued.
“You loved her.”
Ethan said nothing.
That silence was answer enough.
Victoria’s voice broke.
“You never looked at me the way you looked at her.”
Rosa turned away.
Ethan said, “That doesn’t excuse any of this.”
“No.”
Victoria laughed through tears.
“But it explains why I was terrified.”
Agent Shaw had been listening from the edge of the room.
He approached Dane.
“Sir, I think you and I need to talk.”
Dane suddenly bolted.
He shoved past one guard.
A table crashed.
Guests screamed.
He ran toward the service hallway.
Ethan chased him.
“Dane!”
Rosa covered Lily’s ears.
Dane slammed through the kitchen doors.
Ethan followed.
A crash came from inside.
Then another.
Seconds later, Ethan returned dragging Dane by the back of his jacket.
Blood ran from Ethan’s lip.
Dane shouted, “You don’t know what she paid me to destroy!”
Everyone went silent.
Agent Shaw grabbed him.
Ethan wiped his mouth.
“What did you destroy?”
Dane stared at Victoria.
May you like
Then he said—
“The video of Richard Cole paying Rosa to disappear.”
