Chapter 1 - The Wrist
“Don’t touch her!”
Leah caught Victoria’s wrist before the slap reached Mrs. Harrington’s face.
A collective gasp moved beneath the chandelier.
Mrs. Eleanor Harrington remained upright in her silver-framed wheelchair, one trembling hand raised defensively. Victoria stood over her in diamonds and a fitted black gown, her open palm suspended between Leah’s hands.
“Release me,” Victoria shouted. “You work for me!”
Leah’s arms trembled.
But she did not move.
“I work in this house.”
A pause.
“I do not work for cruelty.”
Measured footsteps crossed the ballroom.
Arthur Harrington approached along the center aisle in his burgundy tailcoat.
“She did what you should have done.”
Victoria’s anger collapsed.
“Arthur…you misunderstand.”
He stopped beside them.
“I saw enough.”
Leah released Victoria only after Arthur moved between her and Eleanor.
He knelt beside his wife.
“Why did she raise her hand?”
Eleanor looked toward the black folder on the champagne table.
“She wanted my signature.”
Victoria answered quickly.
“It was an emergency trust update.”
Leah shook her head.
“It sells the staff residences.”
Every employee standing along the ballroom walls went still.
Arthur opened the folder.
The document transferred six apartment buildings, the mansion’s service cottages and the employee retirement fund into a private development company controlled by Victoria.
His face hardened.
“Eleanor refused?”
Victoria lifted her chin.
“She no longer understands what those properties are worth.”
Eleanor looked directly at her husband.
“I understand exactly what they are worth.”
Then she glanced toward the staff.
May you like
“They are worth more than land.”
“They are people’s homes.”
