Page 9

I open the household staffing portal on my iPad and enter my code.

The manifest loads in seconds. Every employee in Vexley House, arranged by department, rank, and clearance.

Hazel Fairchild appears first beneath domestic services.

Hazel has been at Vexley House longer than half the furniture. She’s competent, loyal, and still quite attractive, but way too old…though she’s probably thirty years younger than Stanley himself.

I keep scrolling. Audrey Steppe. Head Housekeeper.

Attractive for an older woman. And she’d know exactly how to manage Stanley. The problem is that he’d hate her because she’s a manipulative bitch.

Tiffany Rinna. Red hair and pretty. Definitely a possibility.

Charlotte Tremont. Brunette and pretty. Also a possibility.

I scroll past her to⁠—

Ella Hart.

Wow.

Light-blond hair. Clear skin. Wide blue eyes with long lashes. Full red lips. There’s a sweetness to the photo, but something vixenish underneath.

The perfect arm candy to loosen Stanley’s purse strings.

Ella Hart, whoever she is, is about to become useful.

3

ELLA

I don’t throw the phone out the window.

I almost do.

One throw and the phone would be out of my room. Out of my hand. Out of my life.

Except it wouldn’t.

Because whoever is on the other end already knows the first message was sent. They may not know I sent it, but they know someone did.

Someone stood in the lower corridor at nine o’clock, facing the last door.

Someone pressed send.

Someone did what they were told.

And now that someone is supposed to do more.

Or…someone sent the second message to the wrong number.

My throat tightens.

The envelope landed in the wrong room. It had to. Charlotte is on one side of me. Tiffany is on the other. Either of them could have been the one meant to find the cash and the phone. Either of them could have been the one meant to send the message.

Maybe Audrey.

Her room isn’t beside mine, but it’s down the hall. Audrey Steppe knows everything that happens in this house. If there’s a secret moving through the servants’ wing, Audrey either started it or decided whether it was allowed to thrive.