Chapter 6 - The Woman Who Never Worked
Odette began telling people I was lazy.
This was both true and unfair.
I was lazy in the same way a locked safe is lazy. I did not move unless there was a reason, but when there was, good luck getting past me.
At a charity planning lunch that week, Odette cornered three society women near the lake windows and spoke loudly enough for me to hear.
“Romy has never held a serious position. Kellan married a decorative liability.”
I was eating a miniature quiche, so I allowed her to continue.
“She knows nothing about discipline, legacy, or responsibility.”
One woman looked at me sympathetically.
I smiled back and requested another quiche from a passing server.
What Odette did not know was that I had worked for six years in archival compliance for a private litigation firm. My job had been to locate, organize, preserve, and quietly destroy people who believed documents disappeared if they stopped thinking about them.
Augustus Bellweather knew that.
It was one reason he chose me.
During contract negotiations, he had asked whether I could survive inside his family.
I told him survival sounded exhausting.
He laughed for almost thirty seconds.
Then he said, “Good. You won’t waste energy impressing them.”
He was right.
But Odette’s insults had a purpose. She was building a story: Romy was lazy, greedy, unserious, and unfit to stand beside Kellan.
If she could make me appear unstable or incompetent, she could pressure Augustus to void the marriage agreement and delay the voting trust transfer.
That would leave Odette with influence.
So while she mocked me, I did what I did best.
May you like
Nothing visibly.
Quietly, I archived everything.
