Chapter 9 - What Lily Saw
Emily stared at the termination letter for a long time.
Then she laughed.
Vincent looked at her.
“What?”
“I spent all yesterday wondering if I had somehow caused this.”
“You didn’t.”
“I know that now.”
Her laugh turned into something close to a sob.
“They had already decided who I was going to be.”
Thief.
Disobedient employee.
Danger to a child.
All before Lily ever touched the bottle.
Vincent placed the document inside an evidence sleeve.
“You’re not any of those things.”
Emily looked at him.
“You didn’t know that yesterday.”
The truth hurt.
“No.”
“I was a maid you barely recognized.”
“I knew who you were.”
“You knew my name.”
Vincent had no defense.
He looked away.
Emily softened slightly.
“I’m not trying to punish you.”
“Maybe you should.”
“I have enough people to be angry with.”
Lily entered carrying a stuffed rabbit.
Emily wiped her face immediately.
“Hey.”
Lily looked between them.
“Are you fighting?”
“No.”
Vincent answered at the same time.
“A little.”
Emily glared.
Lily considered both answers.
“Mommy says fighting can be good if nobody lies.”
Vincent raised an eyebrow.
“You say a lot of useful things.”
Emily sighed.
“I need to speak less at home.”
Lily climbed into a chair.
Vincent studied her.
“Mara said you found the hidden room.”
Lily’s eyes widened.
“Am I in trouble?”
“No.”
She looked skeptical.
“Why do you always ask that?”
“Because usually when grown-ups say ‘Did you do this?’ somebody is in trouble.”
Fair.
Vincent sat across from her.
“How did you find it?”
“I lost Mr. Rabbit.”
She held up the stuffed animal.
“Where?”
“Laundry cart.”
Naturally.
“I followed it. The cart bumped the wall. The wall opened.”
“Did you go inside?”
“Little bit.”
Emily covered her eyes.
“Lily.”
“I didn’t touch.”
“Except by entering a locked hidden room.”
“It wasn’t locked then.”
Vincent interrupted gently.
“What did you see?”
Lily thought.
“Boxes.”
“Anything else?”
“Mrs. Hargrove.”
Emily sat straighter.
“She was inside?”
Lily nodded.
“With Miss Cassandra.”
“When?”
“A long time ago.”
“How long?”
Lily looked helpless.
Vincent adjusted.
“Was it before Christmas?”
“Yes.”
“After your birthday?”
“Yes.”
Emily whispered, “January.”
“What were they doing?” Vincent asked.
“Talking.”
“About what?”
Lily frowned.
“She said Mommy’s name.”
Emily went still.
“What did she say?”
“I don’t remember.”
Vincent waited.
Lily squeezed Mr. Rabbit.
“She said… Mommy notices things.”
Emily and Vincent exchanged a look.
“What else?”
“Miss Cassandra said that was a problem.”
The room became silent.
This had begun months before the staffing papers.
“Did they say why?”
Lily shook her head.
Then her expression changed.
“Oh.”
“What?”
“The picture.”
“What picture?”
Lily pointed toward the hidden archive.
“There was a picture of Mommy.”
Vincent frowned.
Inside Emily’s folder, they found it.
A photograph taken at a bus stop.
Emily holding Lily’s hand.
Another photograph outside a pharmacy.
Another outside a bank.
Someone had followed her.
Emily’s face drained.
“Why?”
Daniel examined the photos.
“These appear professionally taken.”
Vincent looked through the file.
Receipts.
A private investigator.
Paid through one of Mrs. Hargrove’s shell vendors.
Vincent felt sick.
“They were investigating you.”
Emily stared.
“For what?”
Another document answered.
Subject may possess information concerning Vale transition proposal and Moretti household payroll inconsistencies. Determine whether subject has external contacts or has copied records.
Emily sat down.
“They followed Lily.”
Vincent’s voice hardened.
“I’m sorry.”
Emily looked at him sharply.
“You didn’t do this.”
“It happened on my property, through accounts I funded, under people I trusted.”
“That still doesn’t mean—”
“It means I failed to see it.”
Lily climbed beside her mother.
“Are we leaving?”
Emily put an arm around her.
“I don’t know.”
Vincent looked at them.
For the first time, he realized they might.
Not because he fired Emily.
Because she had every reason to walk away.
That idea unsettled him.
“We’ll make arrangements,” he said.
Emily nodded.
But something in her face told him arrangements might not be enough.
Later that afternoon, Vincent sat alone with Enzo.
The baby slept against his chest.
Vincent thought about the files.
People around him had built entire systems based on assumptions about what he cared about.
Hargrove assumed he cared more about efficiency than staff.
Cassandra assumed he cared more about quiet than his son’s actual needs.
Nora assumed he would believe authority over a child.
Emily assumed he could not be reached.
Lily assumed she could be punished for walking on the wrong staircase.
Every assumption revealed something about the man Vincent had allowed the household to believe he was.
Enzo stirred.
Vincent looked down.
“I think your father has been an idiot.”
A tiny hand closed around his finger.
“Thank you for agreeing.”
A knock came.
Emily.
“Can I come in?”
“Yes.”
She entered carrying an envelope.
“What’s that?”
“My resignation.”
Vincent stared.
“No.”
Emily almost smiled.
“That isn’t how resignation works.”
“I’m not accepting it.”
“You don’t have a choice.”
“Emily.”
“I need to leave.”
“Why?”
She looked around the nursery.
“Because Lily is afraid here.”
The words stopped him.
“She doesn’t have to be.”
“She is.”
“I can change that.”
“I believe you.”
“Then stay.”
Emily looked surprised by the urgency in his voice.
Vincent lowered it.
“At least until the investigation is finished.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re important to it.”
“That’s not the real reason.”
Vincent looked at her.
Emily waited.
He had negotiated billion-dollar deals more easily than this conversation.
“The real reason,” he said finally, “is that I don’t want the people who did this to be the reason you leave.”
Emily studied him.
“That isn’t enough.”
“What would be?”
“I don’t know yet.”
Vincent nodded.
Fair.
Then Lily screamed from the hallway.
Both adults ran.
She stood at the far end, staring through an open window.
“Lily?”
She pointed outside.
A black car had stopped beyond the estate gate.
Someone stood beside it.
Cassandra.
Despite instructions from her attorney, despite the investigation, she had returned.
And she was holding something in her hands.
A small box.
Emily whispered, “What is she doing here?”
Vincent looked more closely.
Cassandra raised the box toward the security camera.
Then opened it.
Inside was a stack of letters.
One envelope bore Vincent’s name.
Another bore Emily’s.
May you like
And a third had been addressed, in unfamiliar handwriting, to Lily.
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