Chapter 2 - THE WOMAN BEHIND THE PERFECT SMILE
Dr. Patel arrived twenty minutes later. By then, Sophia had been settled
in the guest suite, Emily had been given warm milk and a soft blanket,
and two guards stood outside the door. Ethan waited in the sitting room
while the doctor examined Sophia’s wrist and cheek.
“She’s bruised,” Dr. Patel told him afterward. “Nothing appears broken,
but she’s badly shaken. I recommend rest and a follow-up tomorrow.”
“Thank you. Please bill the household account.”
The doctor hesitated. “She seems frightened of someone other than the
person who struck her.”
Ethan’s eyes sharpened. “What makes you say that?”
“She kept asking whether her daughter was safe. Not whether she was
going to lose her job. Her first concern was that the child might be
taken.”
Ethan thanked him again and entered the suite only after Sophia gave
permission. Emily was asleep on the sofa, one small hand curled around
the pink shoe she had carried through the house. Sophia sat beside her,
holding a cup of untouched tea.
“I’m sorry,” she said at once. “I never wanted to cause trouble in your
home.”
“You didn’t cause it.”
“I should have told you earlier.”
“Earlier than when you were being threatened?”
Sophia looked down. “I’ve worked here for eleven months. I know what
people say about your family. I didn’t want Emily growing up in the
middle of it.”
“Then tell me what you heard. Every detail you can remember.”
She closed her eyes and reconstructed the call. Olivia had been standing
by the window with her back to the door. At first, she spoke in a low
voice, but then she became agitated. Sophia heard the words “east dock,”
“transfer papers,” and “Cross.” She also heard Olivia say, “He’ll be too
busy handling the emergency to notice the signature.”
“What signature?” Ethan asked.
“I don’t know. She said, ‘Once he signs, the company’s voting rights
will be locked for thirty days.’ Then she said she couldn’t discuss the
rest over the phone.”
Ethan sat very still.
The Parker Group had been restructuring its shipping division. A
temporary voting agreement was scheduled to be signed at a board meeting
in two days. The agreement would allow Ethan to consolidate several
subsidiaries under one holding company. If someone inserted a fraudulent
clause or altered the transfer documents, control of a valuable section
of the business could be shifted without immediately triggering an
alarm.
“Did she mention a time?”
“Tonight. Before midnight.”
“Did you see the number she called?”
“No. She used a private phone. She keeps it in a small drawer beneath
her dressing table.”
Ethan nodded. “You did the right thing by telling me.”
Sophia’s eyes filled, and she quickly looked away. “I’m not used to
anyone saying that.”
The admission unsettled him more than he expected. He had built his
empire by rewarding loyalty and punishing betrayal, but he had spent too
little time noticing the people who made his household function. He knew
Sophia’s name because he signed payroll reports. He had never asked
about her life.
“What happened to Emily’s father?” he asked gently.
“He died when she was two. He worked security for a freight company.
There was an accident at a warehouse. They said it was a robbery gone
wrong.” Sophia rubbed her thumb over the cup’s handle. “The company paid
a small settlement, then stopped answering my calls. I took this job
because it paid reliably.”
“Which freight company?”
“Northline Cargo.”
Ethan’s expression changed. Northline had been absorbed by a subsidiary
three years earlier after a warehouse fire and a string of missing
inventory reports. The official investigation had found no evidence of
criminal conduct, but Ethan remembered the file. One of the missing
shipments had been traced to a contractor with ties to Adrian Cross.
“Do you still have the settlement papers?”
“Somewhere in my apartment.”
“Keep them safe. Don’t contact anyone from that company yet.”
Sophia looked alarmed. “Do you think my husband’s death had something to
do with this?”
“I don’t know. I won’t pretend otherwise. But I’ll find out what the
records say.”
He stood to leave, then paused. “You and Emily will stay here until I
know you’re safe. That isn’t a request.”
Sophia bristled slightly. “I appreciate the protection, Mr. Parker, but
I’m not helpless.”
“I didn’t say you were.”
“You said it as if I had no choice.”
Ethan studied her. Most people avoided challenging him. Sophia did it
quietly, without theatrics, and with her daughter sleeping within arm’s
reach.
“You’re right,” he said. “Let me put it differently. I’d like you to
stay until the danger is clear. You can decide what comes after that.”
Her shoulders eased. “Thank you.”
Outside the suite, Marcus was waiting with a tablet. “We found a gap in
the office security logs. Someone used your access code to open the
safe, then wiped the camera feed for nine minutes.”
“What’s missing?”
“Your personal seal, two draft agreements, and the encrypted drive
containing the east-dock schedule.”
“Who had access?”
“Four people: you, me, your operations chief, and Olivia. The code was
entered from the east-wing terminal, which means whoever did it knew how
to bypass the biometric check.”
Ethan looked toward the closed guest-suite door. “Check every terminal.
Quietly. No one is to know we’re investigating Olivia.”
Marcus nodded. “There’s something else. A car registered to Adrian
Cross’s holding company was seen outside the north gate last night.”
“Did it enter?”
“No. It waited for six minutes, then left.”
“Find the driver.”
Marcus hesitated. “Sir, if Olivia is involved, we should consider moving
you to a secure location.”
“If I disappear tonight, whoever is behind this will know we’ve
discovered the plan. We keep the house operating normally.”
“And the engagement announcement?”
Ethan looked at the roses lying in the foyer. “It proceeds as
scheduled.”
Marcus’s eyebrows rose. “You want to stand beside her in front of the
press?”
“I want her to believe she still has control.”
As Marcus walked away, Ethan glanced through the glass doors toward the
garden. Olivia was outside beneath the covered terrace, speaking on a
phone. She looked composed again, her red coat arranged perfectly, her
posture elegant.
Then she turned just enough for Ethan to see her face.
She wasn’t crying.
She was smiling.
After Ethan left the guest suite, Sophia finally allowed herself to
examine the bruise on her wrist. The skin had already begun to darken
where Olivia’s fingers had clamped down. It was a small injury, nothing
compared with the ache of remembering Emily’s face as she ran into the
foyer. Sophia had promised herself that her daughter would never have to
plead with a powerful person for protection. Yet that was exactly what
Emily had done.
The next morning, a female security officer named Denise brought them
breakfast and a list of emergency numbers. She explained how to use the
room’s panic button and assured Sophia that the guards were there to
protect them, not watch their every move.
“I’m not used to this,” Sophia admitted.
“Neither are most people,” Denise said. “You don’t have to like it. Just
know the rules, and tell us if anything feels wrong.”
That simple kindness eased something in Sophia. Denise did not speak to
her as though she were foolish or fragile. She treated her as a person
who deserved information.
When Emily woke, she asked whether she would still go to school. Sophia
hesitated. She didn’t want her daughter’s life to shrink to a bedroom
and a guarded hallway. Ethan arranged for a trusted driver to take them
to school with Denise accompanying them, and the school was informed
only that the family had a temporary security concern.
At the front gate, Emily clung to Sophia’s hand. “Will you be here when
I come back?”
“I’ll be here.”
“Promise?”
“I promise.”
Watching her daughter walk inside, Sophia felt the familiar guilt of a
working mother who could never be in two places at once. She had built
her life around making sure Emily had what she needed. Now the threat
was no longer a late bill or an unexpected repair. It was a woman with
money, influence, and a reason to keep a secret.
Back at the mansion, Ethan’s investigators discovered that Olivia had
asked the household manager for a copy of the staff schedule twice in
the previous month. She had also requested the names of employees who
worked late in the east wing. At the time, the requests had seemed
ordinary. Now they looked like preparation.
Ethan asked the manager why she had complied.
“Ms. Bennett said she wanted to arrange a surprise dinner and needed to
know who would be on duty,” the manager explained. “I didn’t think it
was unusual.”
“Did she ask about Sophia specifically?”
The manager paused. “She asked whether Mrs. Reynolds had ever worked at
Northline Cargo. I told her I didn’t know.”
Ethan’s jaw tightened. “Why would she ask that?”
“I can’t say, sir.”
He told the manager not to speculate and thanked her for being honest.
Then he added her statement to the investigation file. The case was no
longer just about a stolen drive. Olivia had been collecting information
about Sophia before the confrontation, and that meant Sophia might have
been a target long before she overheard the phone call.
Ethan sent a message to the security team: FIND OUT WHEN OLIVIA FIRST
May you like
LEARNED SOPHIA’S HUSBAND WORKED AT NORTHLINE.
The answer, he suspected, would change everything.
