Chapter 9 - The New Inventory
The grandfather clock in the foyer chimed ten-thirty.
The party was over. The guests were gone, the expensive champagne was sitting flat in crystal flutes, and the multi-million-dollar empire of Adrian Vale was locked tight behind biometric scanners and steel gates.
Grant Mercer walked back into the gallery, holding a small silver tray with two clean, empty glasses and a bottle of unlabelled bourbon. He looked at Adrian, then at me, and for the first time all evening, the older man’s stern mouth twitched into a faint, approving smile.
“Car’s at the front gate for the staff shift change, Nora,” Grant said quietly. “Though I suspect you won't be needing the uniform anymore.”
I looked down at my black staff dress, then back at Adrian.
“Is that an order, Boss?” I asked, testing the word with a slight lift of my eyebrow.
Adrian let out a low, genuine laugh—a sound that seemed to chase away the last remaining shadows of the old house.
“It’s not an order,” Adrian said, stepping closer until the warmth of his body radiated against mine. He placed the cheap white pine frame carefully down on the marble mantelpiece, right beneath a multi-million-dollar seventeenth-century Flemish landscape. It looked entirely out of place, and utterly indispensable. “It’s a permanent reassignment.”
Grant nodded, poured two fingers of bourbon into the glasses, left the bottle on the console table, and quietly walked out of the gallery, closing the heavy doors behind him.
We were alone in the grand mansion.
Eleven wooded acres outside Philadelphia. Twelve-car garage, private theater, priceless art, and enough power to make mayors and governors look at their shoes.
None of it mattered.
Adrian picked up one of the glasses of bourbon, handed it to me, and raised his own in a silent toast.
“To knowing what matters when everyone else is looking at the price tag,” he said.
May you like
I touched the rim of my glass to his. The crystal made a clear, sharp ring that echoed through the empty room.
“To knowing the house,” I replied.
