Chapter 5 - The Maid Who Became the Target
Rory moved me into the safest room in the mansion.
I hated it.
“You're locking me up.”
“I'm protecting you.”
“They're the same thing.”
“No.”
He looked at me.
“Not anymore.”
The twins slept nearby.
Rory stayed awake all night.
He sat outside their room with a gun.
I found him there at four in the morning.
“You should sleep.”
“No.”
“You've been awake for two days.”
“I've survived worse.”
“That doesn't mean you should.”
He looked at me.
“Why do you care?”
I shrugged.
“Because you're tired.”
He smiled faintly.
“You don't know how to stop.”
“Neither do you.”
For the first time, we both laughed.
It was small.
Almost normal.
Then Rose woke.
“Daddy?”
Rory stood immediately.
“What?”
“Bad man.”
“Where?”
“Outside.”
Rory looked toward the window.
Nothing.
I listened.
A faint sound.
Metal.
I pointed.
“The wall.”
He opened a panel.
A microphone was hidden inside.
Someone was listening.
Rory crushed it.
“It's over,” he said.
“No.”
He looked at me.
“They have cameras everywhere.”
He nodded.
We began searching.
In the basement.
Kitchen.
Hallways.
Bedrooms.
The house was covered in surveillance equipment.
Silas had been listening for months.
We found a room containing dozens of monitors.
One screen showed me sleeping.
Another showed Rory.
Another showed the twins.
One showed Celeste.
Another showed Tommy.
It was the center of the network.
A printer was still running.
One page emerged.
THE MAID IS THE ONLY VARIABLE.
Rory read it.
“What does that mean?”
I didn't know.
Until I remembered the night Vanessa died.
I had not worked at the mansion then.
But I had been hired shortly afterward.
The person who recommended me was an agency manager named Mr. Halden.
He told me the Starks needed someone discreet.
Now I understood.
Silas had chosen me.
Not because I was special.
Because he expected me to be invisible.
He had not predicted I would notice the twins.
Rory stared at me.
“You were planted.”
I felt sick.
“I didn't know.”
“I believe you.”
That surprised me.
“You do?”
“Yes.”
He didn't hesitate.
“You could have run.”
“Where?”
“Anywhere.”
I looked at the twins.
“I couldn't leave them.”
Rory's eyes softened.
“That's why I trust you.”
It was the first time he said it.
Trust.
The word felt heavier than anything else.
Then Tommy entered.
“We found Halden.”
“Where?”
“Dead.”
Rory closed his eyes.
Silas was cleaning every loose end.
The next clue came from the hidden recorder.
Vanessa had one final message.
“Rory, if Clara is with you, trust her.”
I froze.
The recording used my real name.
Rory looked at me.
“Clara?”
I nodded.
“My name is Clara.”
“Emma?”
“My middle name.”
Vanessa knew.
She had chosen me.
Not Silas.
Vanessa.
My employment had not been a trap.
It had been a counter-plan.
Vanessa had secretly arranged for me to enter the mansion after her death.
She knew Silas was watching.
She knew he would ignore a maid.
She trusted me to notice what important people missed.
Rory stared at the recording.
“She knew.”
“Yes.”
“She chose you.”
I nodded.
The final message revealed the location of the original ledger.
Not beneath the mansion.
Not in the church.
Inside the city archive.
A room accessible only through an old property record.
Rory prepared to go.
But the twins refused to stay behind.
They hugged him.
“Daddy.”
“I'll be back.”
Rose shook her head.
“Take Clara.”
Rory looked at me.
“She stays.”
Lily added:
“She knows the sounds.”
Rory smiled.
“Apparently.”
We drove to the archive.
The building was empty.
Inside was a locked room.
The key was hidden inside the blue bird symbol.
The ledger was there.
Hundreds of pages.
Everything.
The Starks network.
Silas.
Marcus.
Crane.
Corrupt officials.
Murder orders.
Financial transfers.
Vanessa's death.
Eleanor's poisoning.
Everything.
Rory read until his hands shook.
Then he found one page.
The final line.
THE TWINS WILL BE NEXT.
He closed the book.
“We need to move.”
A gunshot struck the window.
Then another.
The archive was surrounded.
Rory pulled me behind a shelf.
Tommy returned fire.
The attackers entered.
Rory fought his way toward the exit.
I grabbed the ledger.
A man blocked me.
I threw a metal lamp.
He stumbled.
I ran.
We escaped through the rear door.
But Tommy was injured.
Rory helped him.
I held the ledger.
For the first time, I realized something.
This was no longer just Rory's fight.
It was mine too.
When we returned, the mansion was empty.
The twins were gone.
Rory stopped breathing.
The nursery was silent.
On the bed was a note.
YOU SAVED THE LEDGER.
I TOOK THE GIRLS.
BRING IT TO THE OLD THEATER.
MIDNIGHT.
Rory looked at me.
His face broke.
“We're going.”
May you like
I nodded.
“We're bringing them home.”
