Chapter 10 - The Mistress of Vale House
By 1:00 AM, the meeting had concluded, the syndicate bosses had departed under heavy guard escort, and Grant Mercer had been taken away to face his final judgment.
The estate returned to its deep, peaceful quiet.
I walked down the long marble corridor toward the rear service wing, wearing my emerald silk dress, my heels making a crisp, confident rhythm against the stone floor.
I stopped at the entrance of the narrow service hallway behind the kitchen—the very corridor where I used to scrub the floorboards late at night.
The wall was open. The secret stone passage lay quiet and safe beneath the house.
A hand reached out from behind me, gently wrapping around my waist, pulling me back against a broad, warm chest.
"You handled the Commission better than my father ever did," Adrian whispered into my ear, his lips resting softly against my neck.
I turned around in his arms, wrapping my hands around his neck, looking up into his dark, loving eyes.
"I spent four years watching how those men think, Adrian," I smiled gently. "They're not as intimidating as they believe they are."
"You intimidate them, Nora," Adrian chuckled softly, pulling me closer. "And that is why you belong at my side."
He reached into his pocket, pulled out a long, dark velvet cloak, and wrapped it over my shoulders to protect me from the late November chill.
Together, we stepped out onto the wide stone terrace overlooking the eleven wooded acres of Vale House.
The night air was cold, crisp, and smelled of pine needles and damp stone. The golden lights of Philadelphia glowed softly against the dark horizon in the distance.
I rested my head against Adrian’s shoulder as his arm held me tight against his side.
I was no longer the invisible girl in the plain black staff dress. I was no longer the maid cleaning the shadows of another man's castle.
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I was Nora Bennett, the Mistress of Vale House—the woman who had unlocked the secret of the mafia boss's heart, and the guardian of an empire built on loyalty, courage, and love.
And as the clock struck two in the morning, the sunlight of a brand-new dawn began to break over the horizons of Vale House.
