Chapter 9 - THE MAID WHO WAS PLACED BESIDE HIM
I had not accidentally become Julian Mercer’s maid.
Someone had placed me there.
Five months earlier, I had applied for a housekeeping position because I needed better health insurance for my younger brother.
Nothing unusual.
Or so I thought.
Aster Row rejected me initially.
Then called two days later.
A position had suddenly opened.
Executive floor.
Higher pay.
Better benefits.
Charles Mercer had personally recommended my application.
I had never met him.
Julian studied me.
“Why you?”
“I don’t know.”
Mateo dug deeper.
My mother’s name.
Kathleen Callahan.
Deceased.
My father:
Unknown.
That part had always been blank.
My mother refused to discuss him.
Then Mateo found an old hospital record.
My birth.
Twenty-seven years ago.
Emergency contact:
Henry Mercer.
Julian stared.
His father.
I stopped breathing.
“No.”
Mateo opened another file.
Kathleen Callahan had worked as Henry Mercer’s private secretary for four years.
“Your mother knew my father,” Julian said.
“I didn’t know.”
Mateo looked uncomfortable.
“There’s more.”
I already hated that sentence.
“What?”
Kathleen received monthly payments from a Mercer account until I turned eighteen.
I sat down.
“Child support?”
Julian looked away.
DNA was the only way to know.
We tested.
The results came the next morning.
Henry Mercer was not my biological father.
I almost collapsed with relief.
Then Mateo explained the actual relationship.
The closest match was Charles.
My stomach turned.
“No.”
Charles Mercer.
Julian’s uncle.
My biological father.
I stared at the wall.
“So he knew who I was.”
“Yes.”
“He got me hired.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Julian answered slowly.
“Because you could get close to me without looking dangerous.”
I laughed bitterly.
“A maid.”
He didn’t.
Charles had placed his own daughter inside Julian’s daily environment.
Maybe as surveillance.
Maybe as leverage.
Maybe something worse.
Then Elise found an old letter from Kathleen.
Addressed to Charles.
You will never use Tess the way Henry used his children.
I read it three times.
“My mother knew.”
Julian sat beside me.
“You don’t have to process this tonight.”
“I was a tool before I even knew there was a game.”
His voice softened.
“No.”
I looked at him.
“That’s exactly what I was.”
“No.”
“You were placed near me.”
“Yes.”
“You exposed Sloane anyway.”
I stared.
“You made the choice Charles didn’t expect.”
Something inside me steadied.
Maybe he was right.
Blood explained where I came from.
Not what I chose.
Then Mateo’s phone rang.
He answered.
His expression changed.
“Sloane was spotted.”
“Where?” Julian asked.
“Aster Row.”
I stood.
“Why would she go back?”
Mateo looked at me.
“Because she’s in the staff archive.”
My stomach dropped.
“What’s there?”
“Original hiring records.”
Julian stood.
“She’s destroying evidence.”
Mateo shook his head.
“No.”
“Security says she opened one file.”
“Whose?”
He looked at me.
“Your mother’s.”
Sloane wasn’t trying to erase me.
May you like
She was trying to learn what Kathleen Callahan had hidden.
And whatever it was, she apparently believed it was worth returning to the one place where I could expose her again.
