Chapter 8
The intercepted chatter made Aiden Thorne's blood run cold.
The Valentis weren't just hunting his children anymore, they were hunting the teacher too.
To them, Anna Vincent was the weak link, a civilian they could break to reach the Thorne heirs.
?Aiden sat in his dimly lit office, staring at a grainy photo of Anna.
"They think she's a target," he murmured to Marcus.
"They think she's a way in."
?"What's the move, sir?" Marcus asked
?"We bring her inside,"
Aiden replied, his eyes narrowing.
"If she's a ghost, I want her in my house where I can watch the haunting. If she's a civilian, it's the only way she stays alive."
?The invitation was delivered as an ultimatum, but Anna wasn't surprised.
She had spotted the tail three nights ago, a black sedan with changed drivers but the same persistent following distance.
Amateurs.
She almost smiled
Aiden Thorne didn't trust coincidences, and neither did she.
?Two days later, Anna arrived at the estate with a single duffel bag.
Marcus blocked the foyer, his eyes suspicious.
"That's it? No vanity? No books for a live in position?"
?"I travel light, Mr. Marcus," Anna replied, her voice the perfect pitch of a weary schoolteacher.
"Knowledge doesn't take up much space, and memories weigh too much to carry."
?The twins met her at the door like two energetic hurricanes.
"Miss Anna! Do we have to do homework on Saturdays?"
?"Only if you don't finish your vegetables on Fridays," she joked.
?Stepping into the foyer, her breath hitched.
On the mantle sat a wedding photo of Aiden and Isabella.
Anna stood frozen, remembering the exact shade of that white silk before it was consumed by the orange glow of the blast she had desperately tried to damp.
?"Anna?" Aiden's voice was low behind her.
?"A beautiful photo," she said, her mask snapping back into place. "You all look... very happy."
Aiden's eyes narrowed. As a man who had survived a dozen betrayals, he lived in the world of micro expressions.
The pause, the slight tension in her grip, the way her hand tightened around her bag, it all registered.
He didn't speak, but his thoughts sharpened.
She's hiding something.
She was a puzzle he intended to solve.
?By the third day, Anna had mapped the house, the guard rotations, the squeak of the third stair, and the blind spots in the kitchen cameras.
She also identified the three most dangerous people in the house, not the men with guns, but the women with smiles.
?Vanessa, the secretary, arrived at 8:00 AM smelling of expensive perfume and malice.
"Oh, the tutor," she said, eyeing Anna like a smudge on the floor. "How quaint."
Anna smiled politely. Filed her away.
Then there was Sofia, Isabella's sister.
Soft voice when Aiden was near. Sharper when he wasn't.
"Aiden loved my sister. He'll never marry again," Sofia murmured one afternoon, stepping closer than necessary.
"Some positions in this house are temporary."
Anna met her gaze calmly. "Of course."
And finally, Elena, the maid.
She moved through the kitchen like she owned it.
"The kids don't eat broccoli," Elena snapped during lunch. "They only listen to me."
Anna watched her walk away, then looked at Leo. "Is that true?"
?"She's mean when Dad isn't looking," the boy whispered.
?Anna hid a jagged smile behind her napkin.
Amateurs.
To Vanessa, Sofia, and Elena, this was a battle for a rich man's attention, high-stakes social chess.
To Anna, real stakes were disarming thermobaric bombs with hairclips.
Fighting over a man's affection was child's play compared to evading the Valenti hit squads hunting her.
?The week remained deceptively peaceful.
Anna told the twins that broccoli were "Spy Trees" that helped with night vision.
Leo believed her instantly.
"I'm going to be a police officer," he announced proudly.
"And a pilot."
"Ambitious," Anna said, hiding a small smile.
Funny kid.
For the first time in a long time, she found herself... entertained.
The Three Clowns, as she privately named them, were relentless.
Vanessa "accidentally" spilled ink on her lesson plans.
Elena sweetened her tea with salt instead of sugar.
Sofia went further, planting suspicious gadgets in Anna's room, hoping to expose her as a spy.
The next morning, the items were gone.
No confrontation.
No accusation.
Anna simply continued teaching the kids as if nothing had happened.
Sofia, however, couldn't understand how her trap had disappeared.
Anna said nothing.
But she had seen everything.
?She let them think they were winning.
She let them believe she was a naive, soft-hearted teacher.
It was the perfect cover.
?While the secretary, the maid, and the sister-in-law worried about who sat next to Aiden at dinner, Anna was standing at her window at 3:00 AM, scanning the tree line for the glint of a sniper's scope.
They were fighting for attention.
She was watching for threats.
She wasn't competing for a man.
She was protecting the only light left in her life from a past that refused to stay buried.
"Let them play their games," Anna murmured into the dark.
Her reflection stared back at her calm, unreadable.
?"They have no idea what a real monster looks like."