Chapter 2 - THE HOUSE STARTED TALKING
Nobody answered Garrett.
Not at first.
Fear does not disappear because someone finally asks about it.
Fear has habits.
It teaches people to stay quiet even when the door is open.
Celeste laughed softly.
“This is ridiculous.”
Garrett kept looking at the staff.
“Bess?”
The housekeeper stared at the floor.
“Sir.”
“Has Celeste struck employees?”
Bess’s lips tightened.
“Yes.”
Celeste’s face changed.
Garrett turned.
“How many?”
“I don’t know.”
“Try.”
Bess closed her eyes.
“More than six.”
Celeste snapped.
“She is lying.”
Percy stepped forward.
“No, she isn’t.”
Everyone looked at him.
His hands were shaking.
“She hit me with a riding crop last winter.”
Garrett’s expression became unreadable.
“Why?”
Percy laughed bitterly.
“Because one of the horses threw mud on her coat.”
Celeste pointed at him.
“You incompetent little—”
“Finish that sentence.”
Garrett’s voice was quiet.
She stopped.
Addie began crying.
“I’m sorry.”
Garrett looked at her.
“For what?”
“For not saying anything.”
Celeste turned toward her.
“Addie.”
The girl immediately shrank backward.
I stepped between them.
Not aggressively.
Just enough.
Garrett saw.
So did Celeste.
Addie swallowed.
“She slapped me yesterday.”
Garrett looked at her cheek.
The mark had faded.
The fear had not.
“She’s done it before?”
Addie nodded.
“Twice.”
Bess spoke next.
Then the cook.
Then one of the drivers.
Once the first few words came out, the whole house changed.
Stories arrived one after another.
Threats.
Insults.
Unpaid wages.
Destroyed belongings.
A maid forced to sleep in a laundry room after Celeste locked her bedroom.
A gardener fired because his daughter refused to babysit for free.
A cook forced to repay the cost of a dinner guest’s spilled wine.
Garrett listened to all of it.
He never interrupted.
That was almost worse for Celeste than shouting.
When the last person finished, she looked at him.
“You’re going to believe servants over me?”
Garrett’s jaw tightened.
“Servants?”
She realized.
Too late.
“These people work for you.”
Celeste looked around.
“They work for us.”
“No.”
Garrett stepped closer.
“They work for me.”
A pause.
“And apparently they’ve been surviving you.”
She stared at him.
Then smiled slowly.
“You’re angry now.”
“But you’ll calm down.”
“You always do.”
That sentence landed strangely.
Personal.
Confident.
Like she knew exactly how much power she still had.
Garrett looked toward me.
“Laura.”
“Yes?”
“Did she strike you first?”
“Yes.”
“Are there cameras in the reception hall?”
“Four.”
He nodded toward security.
“Save every angle.”
Celeste crossed her arms.
“So she gets to assault me and walk away?”
Garrett looked at her.
“No.”
My stomach tightened.
He continued.
“Both incidents go to the sheriff.”
Celeste smiled.
I did not.
Because I understood what Garrett was doing.
He wasn’t choosing me.
He was choosing evidence.
That mattered more.
Then a guard rushed into the hall.
“Mr. Harwick.”
Garrett turned.
“We found something else on the key logs.”
“What?”
The guard held out the tablet.
“Miss Vane accessed the west archive room last night.”
Celeste went completely still.
Garrett looked at her.
“That room has been locked for twelve years.”
She said nothing.
May you like
He stepped closer.
“What were you doing in my father’s archive?”
