Chapter 5 - THE JOB SHE NEVER REALLY FOUND
Isa remembered applying to Valin House online.
At least, she thought she did.
The listing had appeared late one night while she was sitting in a twenty-four-hour diner after another week of sleeping in cheap motels.
PRIVATE HOUSEKEEPER.
DISCRETION REQUIRED.
SECURE RESIDENCE.
The words secure residence had caught her attention.
She submitted a résumé.
Andrew Mercer called the next morning.
Two days later, she had the job.
Now Andrew had vanished.
Rhett pulled the original hiring file.
Isa’s application wasn’t there.
Instead, a printed recommendation sat on top.
Candidate personally verified.
A. MERCER.
Rhett looked at her.
“You were never in the applicant pool.”
Isa felt nauseated.
“Then how did he know I needed work?”
Nobody answered.
Cole searched his brother’s computer remotely.
Deleted files began appearing.
Photographs of Isa leaving grocery stores.
Photographs outside motels.
Photographs taken months before she ever applied to Valin House.
Rhett’s expression became frighteningly calm.
“They were watching you.”
Isa wrapped her arms around herself.
“Mason?”
“Probably.”
“Then why send me here?”
Rhett looked around his mansion.
“Access.”
“To what?”
He didn’t answer.
Isa understood.
“There’s something in this house.”
Rhett walked to his study.
Behind a painting was a biometric safe.
Inside sat an old black ledger.
Not the Hartwell files.
Something different.
“This contains records from my father’s organization,” Rhett explained. “Names, agreements, debts. Enough information to destroy people who still have power.”
“Why keep it?”
“Insurance.”
Isa stared.
“Mason wanted me close enough to find it.”
“He may have expected you to discover it accidentally.”
“I’ve cleaned this study hundreds of times.”
“And never touched anything you weren’t supposed to.”
Something in Rhett’s voice softened.
That trust hurt more than suspicion.
Isa looked toward him.
“Mason used me.”
“Yes.”
“For years.”
“Yes.”
“And I brought him to your house.”
“No.”
She frowned.
Rhett stepped closer.
“You came here because you were trying to survive. He followed you.”
Isa looked away quickly.
Nobody had ever separated those things for her before.
Surviving.
Guilt.
Mason had always made them feel identical.
Cole interrupted from the doorway.
“I found Andrew.”
Rhett turned.
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“Cook County Hospital.”
Isa stared.
Cole’s voice tightened.
“He was admitted anonymously three weeks ago after a hit-and-run. He’s been unconscious ever since.”
Rhett slowly looked back at the forged hiring records.
Andrew hadn’t been helping Mason.
Someone had been using his identity.
Cole opened another recovered file.
A digital authorization approving Isa’s employment.
It had been entered using Andrew’s password.
But the security camera from that night showed exactly who sat at the computer.
May you like
Rhett’s longtime attorney.
Gideon Shaw.
