CHAPTER TWO #3
“Security found a vulnerability in the service garage.”
“How long to fix it?”
“A few days.”
“Use another building.”
“The others have shared entrances or staff access we cannot control.”
“Put them in a private residence.”
“We are looking.”
Alyssa leaned back in her chair. “You own twenty-three hotels.”
“Charles knows the company.”
“You own apartments through holding companies.”
“Which may be disclosed during legal discovery.”
“You have friends.”
“I’m not moving Sophie from one unfamiliar house to another while she is having nightmares.”
There it was. A decision disguised as a logistical delay.
“How many days?” Alyssa asked.
“I don’t know.”
“Ask your security team.”
“They cannot guarantee a date.”
“No. You cannot guarantee that you will choose one.”
Damian approached the desk. “I said I would find secure housing.”
“You said forty-eight hours.”
“Circumstances changed.”
“The first circumstance was rain. The second was a court order. Now it’s a garage. There will always be another reason.”
His expression hardened. “What do you expect me to do today?”
“Tell Vanessa the guesthouse was emergency shelter, not an open-ended invitation.”
“And move her where?”
“Let your company’s security director answer that. You pay him more than most surgeons.”
Damian planted both hands on the desk. “I will not make a rushed decision involving Sophie’s safety because you dislike Vanessa.”
“I don’t know Vanessa.”
“You’ve distrusted her since she arrived.”
“She arrived knowing the layout of my house.”
“Our house.”
“Interesting correction.”
He straightened. “That isn’t what I meant.”
“It keeps happening.”
Alyssa’s phone vibrated beside the grant files.
A message appeared in the family thread Damian had created that morning for household logistics.
Vanessa: Thank you for allowing us a little more time. Sophie finally slept.
A second message followed.
Vanessa: I know sharing Damian cannot be easy for you.
Alyssa stared at the screen.
“What?” Damian asked.
She lifted the phone.
Before he could take it, the second message vanished.
Only the thank-you remained.
Alyssa opened the thread again.
Nothing.
Damian held out his hand. “Show me.”
“She deleted it.”
“Deleted what?”
“A message thanking me for sharing you.”
His forehead creased. “Why would she write that?”
“Ask her.”
“Did you take a screenshot?”
“It disappeared before I could.”
Damian looked at the remaining message.
Alyssa watched his face as he searched for a reasonable explanation.
Perhaps Vanessa had mistyped. Perhaps Alyssa had misread it. Perhaps exhaustion had altered a harmless sentence.
He did not say any of those things.
He did not need to.
“You think I imagined it,” Alyssa said.
“I think we should ask her.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
Damian placed the phone on the desk. “I don’t know what you saw.”
“I told you what I saw.”
“I heard you.”
Hearing had never been the problem.
Alyssa stood and walked past him.
Vanessa was outside the foundation office with Sophie, examining a wall of framed children’s paintings. She turned as Alyssa approached.
“Did you need me?” Vanessa asked.
“You sent a message about sharing Damian.”
Confusion appeared at once.
“I don’t understand.”
“In the family thread.”
Vanessa took out her phone and opened it. “I thanked you for letting us stay.”
“You sent another line.”
“No.”
“You deleted it.”
Sophie looked between them.
Vanessa lowered her voice. “Alyssa, I wouldn’t say that.”
“You did.”
“Maybe autocorrect changed a word?”
“Which word becomes Damian?”
Vanessa glanced toward the office. Damian had followed them into the hall.
“I don’t know,” she said. “May I see your phone?”
“You know what my phone shows.”
A flush climbed Vanessa’s throat. “I’m sorry this is causing trouble. I can leave.”
“Where will you go?” Damian asked.
Vanessa looked down. “I’ll work it out.”
Sophie’s face tightened. “Are we going home?”
“No,” Vanessa said quickly.
“Is she making us?”
Alyssa turned toward the child. “Nobody is sending you back to a dangerous place.”
“Mom said you want us gone.”
Vanessa’s head snapped around. “Sophie.”
“You said we have to be good or Mrs Vader will make us leave.”
“I didn’t say that.”
Sophie’s eyes filled. “You did.”
Vanessa crouched beside her. “Sweetheart, you misunderstood.”
Sophie stepped away from her mother and pressed against Damian’s side.
Damian rested a hand on the girl’s shoulder.
The movement was automatic. Protective. Devastatingly effective.
Alyssa looked at Vanessa.
For the first time since arriving, Vanessa did not appear frightened or apologetic.
Her face remained calm. Her eyes held Alyssa’s for one quiet second.
Victory would have been too obvious.
What Alyssa saw was patience.
Damian guided Sophie toward the library. Vanessa followed after murmuring another apology.
At the corner, Damian glanced back.
“We’ll discuss this later.”
Alyssa remained beside the children’s paintings.
The first forty-eight hours had expired.
Vanessa Laurent was still living on the estate.
Now Sophie believed Alyssa was the woman trying to make them homeless.