Chapter 2: The Breath Before He Answered
Richard didn't raise his voice when he said it. That was the part that stayed with me.
"You're protecting her?"
He stood three feet away in that hallway with the white walls too bright and the sheer curtains letting in that flat afternoon light. The pendant light over the kitchen hummed a little. I could hear it. I could hear Lily breathing behind my legs, small and shallow where she sat on the floor in her light blue outfit, and I could feel Daniel beside me, his shoulder almost touching mine. His arm was still out, his right arm extended forward like a barricade. I didn't look at him. I watched Richard's face.
He was waiting for me to back down. That's what he always did. He'd ask it as a question that wasn't a question, and if I filled the silence fast enough with the right answer, we could pretend nothing had happened.
The red dress felt tight around my waist. The diamonds at my throat were cold. I hadn't taken them off since the photographer was supposed to come at six, and now the chain sat heavy against my skin. I swallowed and my throat clicked.
"Yes," I said. It came out quieter than I meant it to. Just that one word.
Richard's mouth twitched. Not a smile. He glanced down at Lily and then back at me, and then at Daniel like he'd just remembered Daniel was someone he could address as staff.
He took a half step closer but didn't reach for any of us. He slipped his hands into his pockets, casual, like we were having a normal conversation in a normal hallway.
"Margaret," he said, his voice even, controlled. "This is our house. That's our granddaughter. And this man works for us. He drives. He carries bags. He doesn't get to stand between a grandfather and his family and decide what protection means."
He said it so reasonably I felt my own Yes start to sound hysterical in the air.
Daniel didn't answer. He didn't move his arm at first. I felt him breathe next to me, a slow inhale through his nose. I could see the edge of his neck from where I stood, the dark ink disappearing under the collar of his white shirt, pulled tight with tension. The muscle along his jaw jumped once and then held.
I bent at the knees without taking my eyes off Richard and reached behind me. Lily's hand was cold. She didn't make a sound when I found it. I pulled her up and tucked her behind me, between my back and Daniel's side, so she wasn't visible anymore from where Richard stood. Her light blue sleeve brushed my dress. She pressed her forehead against my lower back and stayed there. I could feel how small her shoulders were.
Richard watched me do it. His eyes narrowed a fraction.
"You see what you're teaching her?" he said to me. "That she can hide behind hired help when she doesn't like being corrected. Daniel, step back. You're overstepping."
Daniel still didn't speak. He shifted his weight, just an inch, turning his body a little more so Lily was completely behind him now. His arm lowered maybe two inches but stayed out. It wasn't aggressive. It was steady. His breathing was the only thing that gave him away. It had gone shallow and deliberate, like he was counting it to keep it even. The tattoos along the side of his neck stood out sharper because the skin there was taut.
Richard let out a short breath through his nose.
"I'm being generous here," he said. "You want to keep working for this foundation, Daniel? You want that reference? Then you will remember who you answer to in this house. I can call the sheriff right now and have you removed for trespassing in a private residence. Don't think I won't. You are an employee, not family."
The word trespassing hung there in that bright hallway. As if Daniel had broken in instead of standing where I'd asked him to stand ten minutes earlier when Richard's hand had been too tight on Lily's arm.
I felt Lily flinch against my back at the word sheriff. I tightened my grip on her hand.
"We are not doing this now," I said. My voice shook on the first three words and then steadied. "Not in front of her."
Richard looked at me for a long second. Then his phone buzzed in his pocket. He didn't take it out right away. He kept looking at us, at this wall we'd made with our bodies, like he was calculating how much it would cost to push through it before six o'clock.
He pulled the phone out, glanced at the screen, and his expression changed. Just a flicker, the gala mask sliding back on.
"That'll be Henderson about the photos," he said, almost pleasant again. "You remember we have photographer at six, Margaret. Full family. Red dress, diamonds, all of it. Lily will be present and she will smile. We are not giving anyone a reason to talk."
He didn't wait for me to agree. He turned toward the study doorway, two steps away, his hand already on the doorframe.
"I have to take this," he said over his shoulder. "When I come out, this little performance will be over. Daniel, stay out of my hallway."
May you like
He stepped into the study and pulled the door partway closed, not all the way, just enough to make a line of shadow across the white wall. I heard him answer, "Richard Ellis speaking," in that smooth donor voice he used for the foundation.
I didn't move. Lily was still holding onto the back of my dress, her breathing quick against me. Daniel stayed where he was in the hallway, arm finally lowering to his side, his shoulders still high. I could see the pulse at the side of his tattooed neck, beating hard despite how still he was trying to stand.
