Chapter 2 - Rooms She Never Entered

By seven the next morning, the estate no longer felt like a home. It felt like a building holding its breath.

Marco replaced two guards at the east wing and disabled Selene’s administrative access without announcing it. Damian canceled breakfast with his outside counsel. I packed Lily’s schoolbag while pretending my hands were not trembling.

“Are we leaving?” Lily asked.

“For school.”

“I mean leaving here.”

I did not know how to answer.

Before the bus arrived, Damian came to the apartment above the garage. He knocked instead of sending a message.

“I need to speak with you.”

I stepped into the hall and closed the door behind me.

He held a tablet showing the access records.

“Do you know what is in the east archive?”

“Old company files.”

“Some.”

“And the study?”

“My father’s ledgers. Private settlement documents. Records from before Bellucci Maritime went public.”

I folded my arms. “Why are you telling me?”

“Because Selene was in all three rooms, and because someone used your staff credential two minutes after she left the records room.”

My skin went cold.

“I was asleep.”

“I know.”

“How?”

“Camera footage.”

The words should have relieved me. They did not.

Damian continued. “Someone cloned your badge.”

I looked through the small window in the door. Lily was tying her shoes.

“Why mine?”

“That is what I intend to find out.”

At school drop-off, I made Lily promise to leave only with me, Marco, or Damian. She protested that Damian was not on the approved pickup list.

“He is now.”

She considered this very seriously. “Okay.”

When I returned, Selene was waiting in the service corridor.

“You embarrassed me.”

I stopped six feet away.

“No. Lily asked to sit in an empty chair.”

“You let her.”

“Yes.”

“You work in this house because Damian is generous.”

“I work in this house because I am paid to.”

Her smile disappeared. “Do not confuse wages with equality.”

Something inside me settled.

I had been afraid of Selene before that moment. Not because she shouted—she rarely did—but because people like her used certainty as a weapon. They made you feel that defending yourself was proof you had forgotten your place.

I looked at her and said, “You don’t get to speak to my child again unless I’m present.”

Her face changed.

“Excuse me?”

“You heard me.”

She stepped closer. “You are finished here.”

“No,” Damian said from behind her. “She isn’t.”

Selene turned.

He walked toward us without hurry. Marco followed.

“You disabled my access,” Selene said.

“Yes.”

“On what authority?”

“It is my house.”

“Our house in three months.”

“Not anymore if you keep lying to me.”

For the first time, she looked genuinely frightened.

Then it vanished.

“I have never lied about entering your archive.”

Marco held up the tablet.

Selene barely glanced at it.

“That proves someone used my credentials.”

“Your face is on camera.”

A pause.

“Then I went in and forgot.”

“At two in the morning?”

“I couldn’t sleep.”

“To three restricted rooms?”

“Damian, listen to yourself.”

He did.

That was what unnerved her.

He simply stood there, saying nothing, forcing her explanation to exist without rescue.

Finally she said, “I was looking for wedding documents.”

“In my father’s sealed records?”

She crossed her arms. “Ask your staff what they hide in strange places.”

Her eyes flicked toward me.

Damian saw it.

“So this is about Camila now?”

“I found things missing. Jewelry. Cash. You know that.”

I almost laughed. “You never accused me.”

“I was trying to protect you.”

“From what?”

“Consequences.”

Damian’s expression hardened.

Marco’s phone vibrated. He looked at the screen, then at Damian.

“We found the cloned credential.”

“Where?”

“Inside the east archive.”

Selene went very still.

Marco continued. “Taped under a desk.”

Damian looked at me.

“Whose prints?”

“Too early.”

Selene smiled faintly. “Convenient.”

Marco did not respond.

Damian said, “No one leaves the estate until we finish reviewing the logs.”

Selene’s voice sharpened. “You cannot detain me.”

“I’m not. You can walk out.”

He stepped aside.

“But if you do, the engagement is over.”

Her face drained.

For several seconds, no one moved.

Then a car horn sounded outside.

Lily’s school bus was gone.

The ordinary sound made the hallway feel even stranger.

Selene reached into her handbag.

Marco’s hand moved toward his jacket.

She froze.

Slowly, she took out her phone.

“I’m calling my father.”

“Do that.”

She walked away.

I turned to Damian. “You just threatened to end your engagement because of an access log.”

“No,” he said.

He looked toward the east wing.

“I threatened to end it because she knew exactly which rooms mattered.”

Marco’s phone buzzed again.

This time, his expression changed.

“What?”

He handed the phone to Damian.

A photograph filled the screen.

A safe deposit key.

It had been found in a drawer in the records room.

Taped beneath it was a handwritten note.

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If Damian asks, blame the maid.

The handwriting looked like mine.