Chapter 10
Elena had been marked for removal.
Not death.
Dismissal.
Grant admitted it.
“Why?”
He looked at her.
“She kept breaking protocol.”
I almost smiled.
“By helping Lily.”
“Yes.”
“Buying shoes.”
“Yes.”
“Stopping accidents.”
He looked ashamed.
“Yes.”
“Delivering Sofia’s letters?”
He froze.
Interesting.
“You knew?”
“I suspected.”
Celeste glared at him.
He continued anyway.
“Elena kept going to Mrs. Adler’s old apartment.”
That was how she learned about the missing letters.
“Then what?”
“Celeste wanted her moved to another estate.”
I looked at Celeste.
She said nothing.
“Why didn’t you?”
Grant answered.
“Your current chief blocked it.”
Good.
One person doing his job.
“What reason?”
“He said Elena had Lily’s trust.”
That mattered.
So Celeste escalated.
The gala incident would accomplish two things.
Discredit security leadership.
And potentially make Elena look reckless if she ran into the collapse.
Except Elena saved Lily.
Publicly.
In front of everyone.
The entire performance reversed.
The maid became proof that instinct and loyalty mattered more than titles.
Grant became the visible threat.
Celeste became tied to him by panic.
I looked at Elena.
“Why did you run?”
She looked confused.
“What?”
“When the crystal moved.”
“I saw Lily.”
“Yes.”
“So I ran.”
Simple.
No calculation.
No family politics.
No future promotion.
A child was in danger.
She moved.
That embarrassed everyone else more than a speech could.
I turned to Grant.
“You were paid with a future position.”
He nodded.
“To endanger the child you were supposed to protect.”
Silence.
Then to Celeste.
“And Elena risked her body for a girl she buys forty-five-dollar shoes for.”
Celeste rolled her eyes.
“There. You romanticize servants.”
I went still.
Not because of the insult.
Because Sofia wrote about exactly this.
People who think rank determines loyalty eventually surround themselves with rank instead of loyalty.
I looked at Elena.
“You work for this family.”
“Yes.”
I corrected myself.
“No.”
She looked confused.
“You work for me.”
A pause.
“And from now on, nobody in this family outranks Lily’s safety when you see something wrong.”
Celeste laughed.
May you like
I didn’t.
Neither did anyone else.
