Chapter 2 - The Doors Were Locked
Grace reached the burning basket before anyone else.
She grabbed the edge, intending to pull it away from the curtains, but heat seared through her fingers.
Nathaniel crossed the ballroom in seconds.
“Move back!”
He snatched a fire extinguisher from beside the fireplace, aimed it at the table, and released a cloud of white foam. The flames disappeared beneath it, leaving blackened ribbons and the twisted remains of Lily’s gifts.
Smoke drifted toward the ceiling.
Someone opened the ballroom windows.
Lily began crying.
Not loudly at first. Her lower lip trembled as she stared at the ruined rabbit. Then she turned toward her mother and released a broken sound that silenced every conversation in the room.
“Mommy, why did my bunny get hurt?”
Grace dropped to her knees and pulled Lily against her chest.
“It’s all right, baby. You’re safe.”
“But Mrs. Alvarez made him for me.”
Grace closed her eyes.
The rabbit had taken the elderly housekeeper nearly three weeks to sew.
Nathaniel looked down at Vivien.
She had slipped the lighter back into her purse, but her hand was trembling.
“What did you do?” he asked.
His voice was so quiet that the guests nearest them leaned closer.
Vivien blinked as though she had no idea what he meant.
“The candles must have caught the ribbon.”
“There were no candles on that table.”
“Then perhaps one of the children—”
“There was one child near the table,” Nathaniel interrupted. “And she was standing twenty feet away.”
Vivien’s father, Charles Marsh, pushed through the gathering crowd. He was a silver-haired real estate developer who had spent years turning wealth into influence.
“Nathaniel, there has obviously been an unfortunate accident,” he said. “Let’s not create a scene.”
Nathaniel looked around the smoke-filled ballroom.
“A three-year-old’s gifts were set on fire in the middle of my home. The scene has already been created.”
Vivien’s mother hurried to her daughter’s side.
“Surely you aren’t suggesting Vivien did this intentionally.”
Nathaniel stared at Vivien.
“I’m not suggesting anything.”
Grace rose, holding Lily in her arms.
She did not want attention. She did not want questions from reporters or photographs of her daughter crying. She only wanted to escape to the staff cottage and close the door.
“Mr. Callaway,” she said shakily, “I’m going to take Lily home.”
Nathaniel’s expression softened when he looked at the child.
“Have Dr. Bennett check your hands first.”
“I’m fine.”
“You were burned.”
“It’s nothing.”
Nathaniel looked at his head of security.
“Have the doctor brought to the library. Grace and Lily can wait there.”
Vivien stepped forward.
“Really, Nathaniel, this is becoming absurd. The child is frightened because her mother is making everything dramatic.”
Grace stopped.
Several staff members reacted, but Nathaniel raised one hand.
The ballroom became silent again.
“You will not speak about Lily that way.”
Vivien’s face flushed.
“I was only saying—”
“I heard what you said.”
Grace carried Lily toward the library. As she passed Vivien, Lily lifted her tear-streaked face from her mother’s shoulder.
“I saw your shiny thing,” she whispered.
Vivien went pale.
Grace kept walking.
The moment the library doors closed behind them, Nathaniel turned to his security director.
“Lock the exterior doors.”
Charles Marsh stared at him.
“You cannot imprison your guests.”
“No one is imprisoned. They’re free to leave after security records their names and confirms they did not remove evidence from my home.”
“Evidence?” Vivien repeated.
Nathaniel faced her.
“You set the fire.”
Vivien laughed, but there was no humor in it.
“You were on the phone.”
“I can hold a phone and use my eyes at the same time.”
A murmur spread across the guests.
Several people lifted their own phones, but Nathaniel’s security team stepped forward.
“No recordings,” the security director announced. “Please put away all devices.”
Vivien looked around the room and realized that the same society figures who had admired her an hour earlier were now watching her with fascination.
She lowered her voice.
“Nathaniel, please. We can discuss this upstairs.”
“We’ll discuss it here.”
“Why?”
“Because you chose to do it here.”
Her controlled smile began to fracture.
“You are going to humiliate me because some inexpensive toys caught fire?”
The silence that followed was immediate.
Grace, standing just inside the library doorway, heard the words.
So did the staff.
Lily did not understand the insult. She only held tighter to her mother’s neck.
Nathaniel’s eyes changed.
Until that moment, he had appeared angry.
Now he looked cold.
“The cook knitted that scarf after working twelve-hour shifts,” he said. “My groundskeeper carved the horse by hand. Mrs. Alvarez sewed that rabbit while recovering from surgery. Those gifts contained more love than anything you have brought into this house.”
Vivien’s mother placed a hand on her arm.
“Don’t say another word.”
But Vivien pulled away.
“You have allowed that woman and her child to forget their position.”
Grace stiffened.
Nathaniel took one slow step closer.
“What position is that?”
“They are employees.”
“So?”
“They live here because you pay them. They eat because you allow them access to the kitchen. Yet you’ve turned the child into some kind of mascot and let the mother walk around as if she belongs beside us.”
Grace’s burned fingers throbbed, but the pain in her chest was worse.
She turned away, unwilling to let Vivien see how deeply the words struck.
Nathaniel noticed.
“Grace has never acted entitled to anything.”
Vivien gave a bitter laugh.
“She doesn’t have to. She looks helpless, and men like you rush to rescue her.”
The accusation landed before hundreds of witnesses.
Grace felt every pair of eyes move toward her.
Nathaniel’s jaw tightened.
“This is not about Grace and me.”
“It has always been about Grace.” Vivien’s voice rose. “You notice when her child waves from the garden. You remember her birthday. You keep that ridiculous lion drawing framed in your office.”
Nathaniel did not deny it.
Vivien’s eyes filled with rage.
“I was supposed to announce my engagement tonight. Instead, everyone was gathered around a maid’s child as if she were a princess.”
Grace finally understood.
The fire had not been random cruelty.
It had been jealousy.
Vivien had burned Lily’s gifts because a toddler had received five minutes of sincere affection.
Nathaniel turned toward the musicians’ platform, where a large projection screen had been prepared for the engagement photographs.
“Michael,” he called to the security director. “Connect the ballroom system to the house surveillance archive.”
Vivien stopped breathing for a moment.
“Nathaniel.”
He ignored her.
The security director spoke quietly into his radio.
Charles Marsh stepped forward again.
“Whatever you think you saw, you need to consider the consequences of making private security footage public.”
“I have been considering consequences for the past eight months.”
Vivien stared at him.
“What does that mean?”
Nathaniel removed his engagement ring box from his jacket.
He placed it on the burned table.
“The call I received tonight was from my chief financial officer.”
Charles’s expression changed.
Nathaniel continued.
“He was confirming that someone used my electronic authorization to move money from the Callaway Children’s Medical Fund into three consulting companies.”
“That has nothing to do with Vivien,” Charles said quickly.
Nathaniel looked directly at his fiancée.
“All three companies are registered to her personal assistant.”
The ballroom erupted in whispers.
Vivien shook her head.
“You said you trusted me.”
“I did.”
“And now you’re believing accountants over the woman you love?”
Nathaniel’s face revealed nothing.
“My accountants never set fire to a child’s birthday gifts.”
The projection screen lowered from the ceiling.
Vivien looked toward the nearest exit.
Two security officers stood in front of it.
“Nathaniel,” she whispered. “Do not do this.”
The lights dimmed.
May you like
The screen flickered.
And the first security recording began to play.
