Chapter 2 - The Sound of Shattered Glass
The guests began to press closer,
their curiosity outweighing their polite breeding as they sensed a scandal far greater than a poorly dressed maid.
Lisa pulled out a small,
black digital device,
no larger than a credit card,
and held it up for everyone to see.
"For three years,"
Lisa began,
her voice steady as she paced a small circle around the fountain in the foyer,
"I have cleaned your toilets,
I have polished your silver,
and I have listened."
Chloe Mitchell tried to step forward,
her face pale.
"Lisa,
stop this nonsense immediately,"
she hissed,
"you’re making a scene at a respectable event."
Lisa laughed,
and the sound was like the ringing of a silver bell,
pure and unapologetic.
"Respectable,
Chloe?"
Lisa asked,
turning the device on.
"Is it respectable to talk about how you’ve been skimming money from your husband’s charity foundation to pay for your gambling debts in Vegas?"
A gasp rippled through the room,
and Chloe’s husband,
a man who looked as though he were made of granite,
turned to his wife with a look of pure horror.
"Or perhaps we should talk about you,
Savannah,"
Lisa continued,
her eyes locking onto the next woman in the circle.
"How you’ve been planning to sell Ava’s business secrets to her competitors the moment her son takes full control?"
Savannah Abbott looked as though she might faint,
her hand clutching the back of a nearby chair for support.
Ava was trembling now,
not just with anger,
but with a sudden,
chilling realization.
Lisa Davis hadn't just been cleaning the mansion,
she had been a ghost,
a silent witness to every dark secret and every whispered betrayal that had occurred within those walls.
"Why?"
Ava managed to ask,
her voice a mere whisper.
"Why would you do this?
Why stay here for three years?"
Lisa stopped her pacing and looked toward the grand entrance of the mansion.
"Because this house didn't always belong to you,
Ava,"
Lisa said,
her voice dropping to a low,
dangerous tone.
"It belonged to the Davidsons,
my mother’s family,
before your husband used a series of fraudulent contracts to steal the land and the legacy."
The room went deathly silent once more.
Zachary moved toward his mother,
his face a mask of confusion.
"Mom,
what is she talking about?
The Davidsons sold this land voluntarily before I was born."
Lisa shook her head,
a sad smile playing on her lips.
"That’s the lie they told you,
Zachary.
But I have the original deed,
the one that was never meant to be found,
the one your father thought he had burned thirty years ago."
Ava stepped back,
tripping slightly on the hem of her own dress.
"That’s impossible,"
she stuttered.
"That’s ancient history."
"History is only ancient if there’s no one left to tell the truth,"
Lisa replied.
"And my grandfather is very good at remembering the truth."
At that exact moment,
the heavy front doors of the mansion swung open,
revealing a tall,
older man with silver hair and a suit that cost more than Ava’s car.
He walked in with a cane topped with a silver wolf's head,
his presence commanding the attention of every soul in the room.
"Good evening,
Ava,"
the old man said,
May you like
his voice booming like thunder.
"I believe you remember me."
