Chương 2
“You pulled me,” Leo said.
Victoria turned.
“I was protecting you.”
“You hurt me.”
“Leo, sweetheart, you’re upset.”
“Don’t.”
Arthur’s voice was barely above conversational volume.
Victoria looked back at him.
“Don’t tell him what he feels.”
One officer had reached the bottom stair.
“Sir, we need everybody to remain separated.”
Arthur stepped aside, but Victoria moved toward him.
“Arthur, listen to me.”
“Stay there.”
“You cannot seriously believe her.”
Her eyes flicked toward Elena.
Arthur followed the glance.
Elena suddenly became conscious of her uniform, the black apron pulled crooked around her waist, and the fact that one of her shoes had come partly off her heel.
She had been brave while there was something to do.
Standing still was harder.
Victoria seized on the silence.
“She has been undermining me for months.”
Elena stared at her.
“That’s not true.”
“She resents me.”
“For what?”
“For being part of this family.”
Elena almost answered, but Leo moved.
He stepped away from her.
Arthur bent instinctively, and Leo crossed the two remaining steps between them and collided with his father’s chest.
Arthur caught him.
Leo wrapped both arms around his neck.
That was when Arthur’s composure finally cracked.
Not dramatically.
His mouth opened, but nothing came out.
One hand settled across the back of Leo’s head while the other pressed firmly between his shoulder blades.
Leo buried his face against his father’s collar.
“I told her to stop,” he whispered.
Arthur closed his eyes.
“I know.”
“She wouldn’t.”
“I’ve got you.”
Victoria stepped down.
“Arthur, he is confused.”
Leo’s grip tightened.
Arthur opened his eyes.
“Don’t come closer.”
The nearest officer raised a hand.
“Ma’am, stay where you are.”
“This is my home.”
“We understand that.”
“No, you clearly don’t.”
She attempted to pass him.
The officer blocked her.
Victoria’s restraint vanished.
“Get out of my way.”
“Ma’am.”
“Do you know who my husband is?”
Arthur looked at her with something colder than anger.
“I’m standing right here.”
Victoria turned toward him.
The second officer came up beside the first.
“Please keep your hands where we can see them.”
“This is absurd.”
She raised both hands, but instead of holding them still, she gestured toward Elena.
“That woman has manipulated a frightened child and called the police because she wants me out of this house.”
Elena’s stomach tightened.
For one sickening moment, the accusation sounded plausible enough to frighten her.
Arthur had known Victoria for three years.
He had known Elena for eighteen months.
Employment was not family.
Loyalty was not proof.
Elena looked toward Leo and wondered whether protecting him had just cost her the job she used to support her mother and her sixteen-year-old daughter.
Then Leo spoke into Arthur’s shoulder.
“She said you’d send me away if I told you.”
Arthur became absolutely still.
Victoria’s face changed.
Only for an instant.
It was enough.
Arthur looked at her.
“What did you tell him?”
“He’s five.”
“He’s six next month.”
“You know what I mean.”
“No.”
Arthur adjusted Leo higher against his chest.
“I don’t think I do.”
Victoria backed one step upward.
The officers moved with her.
She saw them and stopped.
“This is insane.”
“Ma’am, turn around.”
“No.”
“We need you to turn around.”
“I said no.”
One officer reached for her arm.
Victoria jerked away.
The movement pulled the slit of her gown open across one leg, and she stumbled against the stair edge before catching the railing.
“Don’t touch me!”
“Stop resisting.”
“I am not resisting!”
She twisted again as the second officer secured her opposite arm.
Her carefully arranged hair fell across her cheek.
For the first time that evening, she looked less furious than frightened.
“Arthur!”
He did not move.
“Arthur, tell them to stop.”
Leo lifted his face just enough to see her.
Arthur immediately turned the boy away.
“Officers,” he said, “make sure she doesn’t move an inch.”
Victoria stared at him.
“You’re choosing the maid over your wife?”
Arthur’s jaw tightened.
“I’m choosing my son.”
The words did not sound triumphant.
They sounded sick.
One officer guided Victoria’s wrists behind her.
She began protesting again, rapidly now, saying there had been no crime, that Leo had slipped, that Elena was lying, that everybody was making an enormous mistake.
Arthur stopped listening.
He carried Leo down the remaining stairs.
Elena followed slowly, one hand on the railing because her knees had begun shaking.
At the bottom, Arthur turned toward her.
Their eyes met.
There were a dozen things Elena expected him to ask.
What had she seen?
How long had she suspected?
Why had she not told him sooner?
Instead he looked at the red marks on Leo’s arm and asked, “Is he hurt anywhere else?”
“I don’t know.”
Arthur swallowed.
“All right.”
Behind them, Victoria shouted his name.
He flinched but did not turn.
Leo did.
Arthur covered the back of his son’s head with one hand and gently brought his face against his chest again.
“Don’t look.”
“Is she mad at me?”
Arthur’s breathing stopped for a beat.
Then he kissed the top of Leo’s tousled hair.
“No.”
Victoria struggled as the officers held her.
Arthur finally looked across the foyer at the woman he had once trusted alone with his child.
His expression carried no satisfaction, only a fury restrained by the small body clinging to him.
“Take her away in handcuffs.”
Leo’s fingers tightened around his father’s collar.
Arthur tightened his arms around his son in return, and neither of them let go.
The officers led Victoria toward the front doors while the click of the cuffs disappeared beneath the softer sound of Leo trying to steady his breathing.
Arthur carried him past the scattered table linens without seeming to notice them.
Elena bent automatically to gather one of the folded napkins, then stopped halfway down.
Her hands were still shaking.
May you like
One of the officers remained near the staircase while the other two escorted Victoria outside.
He was younger than Elena had first thought, maybe early thirties, with rain-darkened shoulders on his uniform and a careful expression that suggested he had already learned not to mistake wealth for calm.
