Chapter 2: What the Housekeeper Remembered
⬇️ PART 2 ⬇️
The room went completely silent.
Not the polite silence of a formal announcement.
The held-breath kind.
The kind where two hundred people suddenly understood they were watching something they were never meant to see.
Julian stood slowly.
His eyes moved from the memory card to Malcolm.
"You knew she had it."
Malcolm set his champagne glass down on a nearby tray.
His voice was measured, almost gentle.
"Julian.
This woman is a stranger who broke into your home.
Whatever she's shown you was planted."
"By who?"
Malcolm didn't answer.
Camille found her footing again.
"She came here with a plan.
Can't you see that?
She targeted you."
Julian looked at Nora.
"Did my mother ever tell you what was on it?"
Nora shook her head.
"She said I'd know when to use it.
She said the right person would ask the right question."
A sound came from the upper corridor.
A door.
Then footsteps on the marble staircase.
A woman in her sixties appeared at the top, gripping the railing.
One of the senior housekeepers.
She had worked at Alderwyn for thirty years.
Her face was ash-white.
"Mr.
Hawthorne." Her voice cracked.
"I need to tell you something.
I should have told you eighteen years ago."
Malcolm stepped forward.
"Margaret—"
"Don't." She didn't look at him.
"I'm not afraid of you anymore."
The ballroom didn't breathe.
---
What Margaret revealed next shattered everything Julian believed about his mother's d3ath — and pointed directly at someone he had trusted his entire life.
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The truth is worse than anyone in that room was prepared for.
