Chapter 2 - THE TEXT MESSAGE
“Mom?”
Noah’s small voice saved them.
Brooke turned.
The boy stood barefoot near the staircase, holding an old stuffed baseball mascot against his chest.
Natalie immediately moved toward him.
“Baby, go back upstairs.”
“Why are you yelling?”
“We’re not.”
Brooke smiled.
It was the kind of smile adults used when they wanted children to stop asking questions.
“Your mom and I are just talking.”
Noah looked at her.
“You said we have to leave.”
Natalie froze.
Brooke’s smile slipped.
“Noah—”
“You said Uncle Dominic wouldn’t want us after you got married.”
Emma stared at Brooke.
Behind the wall, Dominic’s hands curled into fists.
Brooke took a slow breath.
“You misunderstood.”
“No, I didn’t.”
Natalie knelt beside her son.
“When did she say that?”
Noah looked terrified.
“Yesterday.”
Brooke snapped, “He’s nine. Children confuse things.”
Noah flinched.
Natalie stood.
“Do not raise your voice at my son.”
Brooke grabbed the folder.
“We’ll finish this later.”
“No, we won’t.”
Brooke’s eyes narrowed.
“We will.”
She walked away.
Natalie took Noah upstairs.
Emma waited until the hallway went silent.
Then Dominic stepped out.
His face was empty.
That scared Emma more than rage would have.
“How long?” he asked.
Emma picked up the broken cup.
“How long what?”
“How long has she been doing this?”
Emma didn’t answer.
Dominic’s voice sharpened.
“Emma.”
She looked at him.
“Since she realized everyone here was too scared to tell you.”
His jaw tightened.
“Why?”
“Because every time someone tried, she got ahead of them.”
Emma placed the broken pieces on the tray.
“She told you Charles stole from the wine cellar.”
Dominic remembered.
His old butler had been fired.
“She said Denise was gossiping about your private life.”
Another housekeeper had left.
“She said your driver was drunk.”
Dominic’s face changed.
“He wasn’t?”
“He doesn’t drink.”
Silence.
“Tell me everything.”
Emma shook her head.
“No.”
He looked genuinely surprised.
“No?”
“If I tell you, she’ll say I hate her.”
Emma grabbed a towel.
“She’ll say Natalie is unstable because she lost her husband. She’ll say Noah is traumatized. She’ll say the staff are angry because she expects standards.”
Dominic said nothing.
“She’ll cry,” Emma continued. “Then she’ll apologize. Then she’ll make you feel guilty for doubting her.”
Dominic stared at the rain streaking the windows.
“So what do I do?”
“Watch.”
He looked at her.
“Let her think you’re still in London.”
A cold smile touched Dominic’s mouth.
“That’s why I came home.”
Upstairs, Brooke locked herself inside the guest bathroom.
She pulled out a second phone Dominic didn’t know existed.
Then she opened a message thread saved under one name.
MARTIN.
Her older brother.
She typed:
HE SUSPECTS.
The reply came thirty seconds later.
YOU SAID HE WAS IN LONDON.
Brooke typed:
HE IS. I THINK.
Three dots appeared.
Then:
GET NATALIE’S SIGNATURE TODAY.
Brooke stared at the message.
Another appeared.
AND FIND THE ORIGINAL TRUST BEFORE HE DOES.
Brooke’s hand began to shake.
Because the original trust wasn’t in a lawyer’s office.
May you like
It was somewhere inside the Mercer estate.
And if Dominic found it first, everything they had planned was over.
