Chapter 2 - The Words Nobody Dared Say
Brinley stood in the doorway of Jude Mercer’s private study, hugging her one-eyed teddy bear against her chest.
The room was enormous, dark, and silent.
Tall bookshelves covered the walls. Heavy curtains blocked most of the moonlight. A fireplace glowed low beneath a portrait of an older man with Jude’s sharp features and colder eyes.
On the desk beside Jude’s hand rested a black handgun.
But Brinley did not notice the gun.
She noticed the man.
He looked tired.
Not the normal kind of tired Audrey became after working all day. This was something deeper. Something sadder. The kind of tired that lived behind someone’s eyes for a very long time.
Jude stared at her.
“Who let you in here?” he asked again.
Brinley took two small steps into the room.
“Nobody,” she said.
His eyebrows pulled together.
“Nobody?”
“I opened the door.”
“You opened the door.”
She nodded proudly. “I’m good at doors.”
For a moment, Jude Mercer—the man who had made judges nervous and gang leaders disappear—did not know how to respond.
Then Brinley looked at the empty chair near his desk.
“Are you waiting for someone?”
Jude’s expression hardened again. “You should not be here.”
“But you look lonely.”
The words landed in the room like a gunshot.
Outside the door, Reggie Shaw had just arrived.
He stopped instantly.
No one spoke to Jude Mercer that way.
Not his employees.
Not his enemies.
Not even the few people who had known him before he became the most feared man in Providence.
Jude leaned back in his chair.
“You think I look lonely?”
Brinley nodded.
“My mommy gets that face sometimes.”
Jude’s eyes narrowed. “What face?”
“The face when she thinks I’m asleep.”
Something in Jude’s expression changed.
It was barely visible.
A small crack in something old and carefully guarded.
Brinley walked closer to his desk and placed her teddy bear on the edge.
“His name is Buttons,” she explained. “He only has one eye because the other eye fell off.”
Jude glanced at the bear.
“I see that.”
“Mommy says he’s still perfect.”
Jude looked at Brinley again.
“And what do you say?”
“I say he needs a new eye.”
That almost made Jude smile.
Almost.
Then Audrey appeared in the doorway.
She had been searching the entire mansion in panic, calling Brinley’s name in a voice that grew more frightened with every empty room.
When she saw her daughter standing near Jude Mercer’s desk, Audrey’s heart stopped.
“Brinley!”
Brinley turned.
“Hi, Mommy.”
Audrey rushed forward and scooped her into her arms.
“I told you not to leave the room.”
“I wanted to see the big house.”
“You could get hurt.”
“But I found the sad man.”
Audrey froze.
The entire study became silent.
Reggie lowered his eyes.
Audrey looked at Jude, expecting rage.
Instead, he was watching Brinley with an unreadable expression.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Mercer,” Audrey said quickly. “She’s three. She doesn’t understand the rules. It will not happen again.”
Jude’s fingers tapped once against the desk.
“Her name is Brinley?”
“Yes.”
“And you are Audrey Wells.”
“Yes, sir.”
He studied her.
Audrey had learned not to look directly into his eyes, but she could feel his attention like heat against her skin.
“You came because of Tristan Wells’s debt.”
“Yes.”
“Did you know what he was involved in?”
“No.”
Jude’s face did not change.
“Most wives say that.”
“I’m not most wives.”
Brinley looked between them.
“My mommy doesn’t lie.”
Audrey held her daughter tighter.
Jude’s gaze shifted to the child.
Then, unexpectedly, he picked up Buttons from his desk.
He held the bear in one hand, examining the missing eye.
“Reggie,” he said.
“Yes, sir.”
“Get someone to repair this.”
Reggie blinked. “Repair the bear?”
Jude looked at him.
“Is there another bear in this room missing an eye?”
“No, sir.”
“Then yes. Repair the bear.”
Brinley gasped.
“You can fix Buttons?”
Jude handed the teddy bear back to her.
“I know people who can fix things.”
Brinley hugged the bear happily.
Then she looked at Jude one more time.
“You should sleep,” she told him. “Mommy says sad people need sleep.”
Audrey nearly stopped breathing.
But Jude only said, “Goodnight, Brinley.”
“Goodnight, Mr. Sad Man.”
Audrey hurried out before her daughter could say anything worse.
In the hallway, she pressed Brinley close.
“You cannot call him that,” she whispered.
“Why?”
“Because he is Mr. Mercer.”
“But he is sad.”
Audrey looked back toward the half-open study door.
Jude Mercer was standing in the shadows, watching them leave.
And for the first time since entering the estate, Audrey wondered whether the stories about him had left out something important.
Something human.
But she would learn soon enough that humanity was often the most dangerous thing a man like Jude Mercer could afford to show.
Because the next morning, Audrey found an envelope outside her bedroom door.
Inside was a photograph of Tristan.
Alive.
Tied to a chair.
And beneath the picture were six words written in red ink:
May you like
Your husband owes more than money.
---
