Chapter 2 - The Lie Sadie Couldn’t Finish
The private doctor arrived fourteen minutes later.
Sadie knew because she watched every minute pass on the antique clock above the fireplace while Declan stood near the windows making calls.
He never raised his voice.
That frightened her more than shouting would have.
“Cancel tonight.”
Pause.
“No explanation.”
Another call.
“Bring Victor, Nolan, Price, Keller, and everyone assigned to Vane’s division.”
Pause.
“Yes. Tonight.”
A third.
“Find out who owns Green Hollow.”
Longer pause.
“I know what the public paperwork says. Find out who actually owns it.”
Sadie sat in a leather chair with her injured arm held against her body.
At one point, she tried to stand.
Declan noticed immediately.
“Sit.”
“I should finish the dining room.”
He stared at her.
Sadie sat again.
Dr. Evelyn Park arrived carrying two black medical cases.
She appeared to be in her forties, with dark hair pulled into a practical knot and the expression of someone accustomed to powerful men attempting to give medical instructions.
She ignored Declan completely after he pointed toward Sadie.
“What happened?”
“I fell.”
Declan made a quiet sound from across the room.
Dr. Park looked between them.
“Did you?”
Sadie closed her eyes.
“No.”
“That’s better.”
The cardigan came off.
The homemade splint followed.
Sadie stared toward the windows while Dr. Park examined the arm.
When the doctor touched one particular spot, Sadie flinched.
“Definitely fractured.”
Declan’s hand tightened around the back of a chair.
“How bad?”
“I’ll need imaging before I know whether surgery is necessary.”
Sadie immediately said, “No surgery.”
Dr. Park did not even glance at her.
“That isn’t a financial decision.”
“It is for me.”
“Not tonight,” Declan said.
Sadie turned toward him.
“Stop doing that.”
“Doing what?”
“Deciding things.”
“I’m preventing you from permanently damaging your arm.”
“You think because you have money—”
“No.”
His answer cut through hers.
“I think because someone broke your arm while using my name, I have an obligation to fix what I can.”
“You didn’t do it.”
“Men under my roof enabled the people who did.”
That silenced her.
Dr. Park looked from one to the other.
“Can the argument wait until after the X-ray?”
Neither responded.
Portable imaging equipment arrived from a private clinic.
The fracture was ugly but stable.
No surgery, provided Sadie kept the arm immobilized and returned for another scan in a week.
Dr. Park replaced wooden spoons with a proper temporary brace.
Sadie almost cried from relief when the support took pressure off the injured bone.
Declan noticed.
He noticed everything.
Dr. Park prescribed medication and gave strict instructions.
“No polishing tables.”
Sadie glanced at Declan.
He almost smiled.
Almost.
After the doctor left, Sadie expected Declan to dismiss her.
Instead, he placed a folder on the table.
“What’s that?”
“Your employment contract.”
Her stomach dropped.
Of course.
This was where reality returned.
She had caused trouble.
Police might come.
Questions might be asked.
Men like Declan Watters did not like complications.
Sadie prepared herself.
Then Declan opened the folder.
“You have sixteen days of unused paid medical leave.”
Sadie blinked.
“What?”
“Apparently nobody explained your benefits properly.”
“I don’t need sixteen days.”
“You need more.”
“But—”
“You’ll receive full wages until the doctor clears you.”
Sadie stared.
“That isn’t necessary.”
“It is legally required under the policy.”
She narrowed her eyes.
“Was that policy there yesterday?”
Declan looked offended.
“Sadie.”
“Was it?”
After three seconds, the corner of his mouth moved.
“Yes.”
“Good.”
“You thought I invented sick leave this afternoon?”
“I’m still deciding what kind of man you are.”
The faint amusement disappeared.
“So am I.”
A knock interrupted them.
Victor Hale entered.
Sadie had seen him many times around the estate.
Forty-five.
Dark suit.
Quiet manner.
Declan’s closest adviser, according to household gossip.
Victor saw Sadie’s brace and stopped.
“What happened?”
“Marcus Vane happened,” Declan said.
Victor’s face hardened.
Declan handed him a paper.
“Green Hollow.”
Victor read it.
Then looked up.
“No.”
“What?”
“We ran background checks on this company eighteen months ago.”
“Why?”
“Vane recommended them for employee elder-care referrals.”
Sadie’s skin went cold.
Declan’s face became unreadable.
“Explain.”
Victor continued carefully.
“Vane said they offered discounted placements for relatives of security employees.”
“And nobody checked their ownership?”
“We did. On paper, it belongs to Albright Senior Living.”
Declan held out his hand.
Victor handed over another page.
“We traced the management fees ten minutes ago.”
Declan read the first line.
Sadie saw something shift in him.
“Who?”
Victor hesitated.
Declan raised his eyes.
“Say it.”
“Northlake Consulting.”
Declan stared.
Sadie did not understand.
Victor did.
“Northlake belongs to Marcus Vane’s brother-in-law.”
Silence.
Declan walked slowly toward the long mahogany table Sadie had been polishing when he entered.
For two years, men had sat around that table.
Deals had been made there.
Jobs offered.
Promotions approved.
Loyalty promised.
Perhaps betrayal had been sitting there too.
“How much?” Declan asked.
“Too early to know.”
“Estimate.”
Victor hesitated.
“Several million.”
Sadie felt sick.
“From families?”
Victor glanced at her.
“Yes.”
Declan looked at the polished tabletop.
“And they were using my reputation to collect.”
“Yes.”
A door opened.
Another man appeared.
“Sir, everyone is assembling downstairs.”
“How many?”
“Fourteen, excluding Vane.”
Declan looked up.
“Where is he?”
“He left headquarters forty minutes ago.”
Victor checked his phone.
“No answer.”
Declan’s gaze hardened.
Sadie suddenly understood.
Fourteen men.
Plus Marcus Vane.
Fifteen.
The number meant nothing to her yet.
By sunrise, it would mean everything.
Declan turned to Victor.
“Collect their access cards.”
“All of them?”
“Every man who reported directly to Vane.”
Victor’s expression sharpened.
“You think all fourteen knew?”
“No.”
“Then why suspend everyone?”
“Because I don’t know which ones did.”
Sadie spoke before thinking.
“That isn’t fair.”
Three men turned toward her.
She almost wished she could take the words back.
Declan studied her.
“What?”
“If some of them are innocent, you can’t punish everyone.”
One of the security men looked shocked that a maid had interrupted Declan Watters.
Declan did not.
“What would you suggest?”
Sadie hesitated.
“I don’t know.”
“You objected. So give me an alternative.”
She looked at Victor.
“Interview them separately.”
Victor glanced toward Declan.
Sadie continued.
“People who rehearse lies together tell the same story. Separate them before they know what you already know.”
The room became very quiet.
Declan’s eyebrows rose.
Sadie realized she had said too much.
“How do you know that?”
“My father was a cop.”
Nobody spoke.
Sadie looked away.
“He died when I was nineteen.”
Declan absorbed the information.
Then turned toward Victor.
“Separate rooms.”
Victor nodded.
“And don’t tell them what this is about.”
“Yes.”
As Victor turned to leave, Declan added:
“Victor.”
He stopped.
“If Sadie is right and some are innocent, they walk out with their jobs.”
Victor nodded.
Sadie looked at Declan.
He looked back.
Neither said anything.
But something between them had shifted.
An hour later, the interviews began.
Sadie should have gone home.
She wanted to.
Yet the thought of returning to the apartment where three men had broken her arm made breathing difficult.
Declan noticed again.
“Where are you staying tonight?”
“Home.”
“No.”
Her frustration returned.
“You promised not to decide everything.”
“I promised nothing.”
“You can’t tell me where to sleep.”
“Correct.”
“Good.”
“But I can tell you three men visited your apartment less than twenty-four hours ago and at least one of them knows where your mother lives.”
Sadie had no answer.
Declan continued.
“There are guest rooms here.”
“I’m not staying in your house.”
“You work in my house.”
“That’s different.”
“How?”
“I leave.”
Declan almost responded.
Then stopped.
Sadie saw that her last two words had landed harder than she intended.
She softened her voice.
“I don’t belong here.”
Something unreadable moved behind his eyes.
“That wasn’t what I asked.”
Before she could answer, Victor returned.
His face was pale.
Declan noticed immediately.
“What?”
“We found something.”
“What?”
“One of Vane’s men had a second phone.”
Victor placed it on the table.
“There are photographs.”
Sadie’s stomach tightened.
Victor hesitated before turning the screen.
The first photo showed Green Hollow.
The second showed Sadie leaving the facility.
The third showed her apartment building.
Then her mother.
Sitting near a window.
A date stamp appeared at the bottom.
Yesterday.
Sadie stopped breathing.
Declan looked at the photograph for a long time.
When he spoke, his voice was quiet.
“Move Mrs. Miller.”
Sadie jerked upright.
“What?”
“Tonight.”
“No.”
“Sadie—”
“She gets confused when people move her.”
“So someone stays with her.”
“I can’t just—”
“You can.”
He stepped closer.
“No one is going to touch your mother.”
Sadie’s eyes filled again.
“How can you promise that?”
Declan glanced toward the phone containing photographs of her life.
“Because this ends before the sun comes up.”
Victor cleared his throat.
“There’s more.”
Declan turned.
“One of the detained men gave us a location for Marcus.”
“Where?”
Victor looked toward Sadie, then back.
“Green Hollow.”
Sadie stood so fast the room tilted.
“My mother.”
Declan caught the chair instead of her, remembering she did not like being grabbed.
That small detail almost undid her.
He looked at Victor.
“Car.”
Then at Sadie.
“You stay here.”
“No.”
“Sadie.”
“My mother is there.”
“It could be dangerous.”
“She has dementia. She doesn’t know what’s happening.”
Declan stared at her.
She stared back.
For two years she had been invisible.
Not tonight.
Finally, Declan exhaled.
“You stay beside me.”
Sadie nodded.
“And if I tell you to leave?”
“I’ll consider it.”
Victor coughed to hide what might have been a laugh.
Declan pointed toward him.
“Not one word.”
They moved toward the door.
As Sadie followed, she glanced once at the mahogany dining table.
That morning, her greatest fear had been losing a shift.
Now fifteen men were being questioned, her mother was being watched, and the most dangerous man in Grayhaven was walking beside her.
But Sadie still did not understand the worst part.
Someone at Green Hollow had not only been watching her.
They had been waiting for Declan to notice.
May you like
And Marcus Vane had prepared for exactly that.
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