Roman opened the black folder and let the first page rest beneath the chandelier light.
Ava could not read it from where she stood.
Caleb could.
That was enough.
His shoulders changed first.
The aggressive width disappeared from them as if someone had pulled a wire loose inside his body.
Mrs.
Bellamy stopped halfway down the staircase.
Roman did not look at Ava.
He looked at the house manager.
“Come down,” he said.
Mrs.
Bellamy resumed walking with measured steps.
She had spent years making that staircase look like an extension of her authority.
Every employee in the mansion had watched her descend it to correct a table setting, question a delivery, or dismiss a staff member with two quiet sentences.
Tonight, for the first time, it seemed too long.
“What exactly is in that folder?” she asked.
Roman turned one page.
“The visitor authorization you signed at two seventeen this afternoon.”
Ava looked up sharply.
Mrs.
Bellamy’s expression barely moved.
“Yes.
Ava had a childcare difficulty.
I made an exception.”
Caleb stared at the floor.
Roman nodded.
“Then why did Mr.
Rourke tell her she had violated security procedure?”
“I cannot speak for Mr.
Rourke.”
Caleb’s head came up.
“You told me—”
Mrs.
Bellamy cut him off with a glance.
It was quick.
It was also the first unmistakable crack.
Roman noticed.
“So now we’re getting somewhere,” he said.
Ava’s nephew was visible through the open sitting-room doorway.
He sat rigidly on the edge of a sofa, gripping the straps of his little backpack.
One of the staff members remained several feet away, giving him space.
Ava wanted to go to him.
She also knew that if she left this corridor, people like Caleb and Mrs.
Bellamy would begin changing the story before her blood had dried.
So she stayed.
Roman slid a second document forward.
“Three weeks ago,” he said, “I asked for a private review of staff departures during the last eighteen months.”
Mrs.
Bellamy folded her hands.
“Without informing me?”
“Yes.”
“I manage household personnel.”
“That was the problem.”
The silence after that sentence felt different from the silence Ava had known in the mansion.
This one did not protect Bellamy.
