Chapter 5 - THE DOOR OPENS
I picked up the glass before the door opened.
Not to drink.
To move it away from the edge of the desk.
Chloe stepped backward.
Gwen entered with a pleasant expression that died when she saw the phone in Chloe’s hand.
“There you are,” she said.
Her voice remained light.
Too light.
“I wondered where you went.”
Chloe said nothing.
Gwen looked at me.
“Franklin, why is she in here?”
“She had something to tell me.”
“About what?”
“The will.”
A flicker.
Gone.
Gwen laughed softly.
“The will? She’s staff.”
I looked at Chloe.
She flinched.
That angered me more than Gwen’s lies.
For years, I had prided myself on treating employees well.
Yet under my roof, a young woman had learned she could be dismissed as less human with two words:
She’s staff.
I turned back to Gwen.
“She heard your call.”
Gwen’s face changed again.
Not panic.
Calculation.
“Chloe has been unstable lately.”
Chloe whispered, “No.”
Gwen stepped closer.
“She’s been asking about money. About bonuses. She resented Mrs. Alvarez being let go.”
I stood.
Slowly.
My knees hurt, but I stood.
“Stop.”
Gwen blinked.
“Franklin—”
“Not one more word about her.”
Silence.
I picked up my phone.
Gwen’s eyes moved to it.
“Who are you calling?”
“Samuel.”
“At this hour?”
“Yes.”
She smiled again.
“You’re frightened. That is understandable. But we should discuss this privately.”
“No.”
That word seemed to offend her more than accusation.
“No?”
“No.”
I called Samuel.
He answered on the sixth ring, voice rough with sleep.
“Franklin?”
“I need you to come to the house. Bring security if you think appropriate. And call Elise.”
Gwen’s face hardened.
“You’re involving your children?”
“Yes.”
Chloe began crying quietly.
Not from relief.
From terror at what came next.
Gwen stepped toward the desk.
Toward the phone.
Toward the glass.
I moved first.
For a seventy-four-year-old man, fear can be clarifying.
I took the glass and placed it inside the locked display cabinet behind my chair.
Then I pocketed the key.
Gwen watched me.
Her expression emptied.
May you like
I had just done something worse than accuse her.
I had preserved evidence.
