Chapter 2 - His House
Victor demanded the lights be restored.
Robert refused.
The lockdown did not prevent anyone from leaving safely through supervised exits. It stopped private elevators, external drives and document destruction systems from operating until the estate’s emergency trustee arrived.
Victor looked toward the silent household employees gathered near the service hall.
“This is a domestic disagreement.”
Elena laughed painfully.
“You say domestic whenever you need witnesses to feel like servants.”
She explained what happened.
Victor placed the transfer agreement before her after dinner.
He told her it was a routine refinancing document.
She read the attached property list.
The mansion.
The carriage house.
Four employee apartment buildings.
The retirement cottages behind the north lawn.
All would be transferred to Carrington Urban Partners, a company secretly controlled by Victor.
When Elena refused, he took her phone and blocked the doors.
She tried to reach the security panel.
He caught her arm.
She pulled away, lost her balance and fell onto the marble.
Victor called that proof she was hysterical.
Robert looked at him.
“You watched her fall and poured yourself another drink.”
“I did not touch her after she fell.”
The answer exposed him.
Not concern.
Technical innocence.
Victor pointed around the dark foyer.
“And yes, this is my house.”
Robert opened the transfer folder.
The legal title named the Ashbourne Preservation Trust.
Victor owned twelve percent.
Elena owned thirty-seven.
The remaining fifty-one percent belonged to a beneficiary group identified only as the Household Stewardship Cooperative.
Victor’s face tightened.
“That cooperative has no active members.”
An older housekeeper stepped forward from the service hall.
Mrs. Lewis had managed Ashbourne House for twenty-eight years.
“We were never told we had membership.”
Robert looked at Victor.
The man had called the mansion his while the people who maintained it unknowingly held the majority.
May you like
Then Elena opened the final attachment.
Victor had already signed on behalf of the workers.
