Chapter 2 - The Woman Who Hired Sophia
Sophia Bennett followed Adrian’s gaze across the ballroom.
The woman standing beside the charity auction table looked as if she had
forgotten how to breathe.
Her name was Eleanor Price.
Sophia knew her only as the woman from the staffing agency who had
called that afternoon.
“Can you work a private gala tonight?”
Double pay.
Black uniform.
Arrive by six.
Sophia had accepted because rent was due Monday.
Now Eleanor’s champagne glass lay shattered at her feet.
Adrian held up his phone.
The latest transfer from the private fund had gone into an account
registered to Eleanor Price Consulting.
$38,000.
Three days earlier.
Sophia stared.
“You hired me.”
Eleanor looked toward Vanessa.
Vanessa shook her head almost imperceptibly.
Adrian saw it.
“Security,” he said. “Ms. Price stays too.”
Eleanor’s face hardened.
“You have no authority to detain me.”
“You’re right.”
Adrian slipped the phone into his pocket.
“But the police are already on their way.”
Vanessa spun toward him.
“You called the police?”
“I called them before I stood up.”
Sophia looked at Adrian.
He had known something would happen tonight.
The realization unsettled her.
“You knew I’d be here.”
Adrian did not deny it.
Sophia stepped backward.
“Did you arrange this?”
“No.”
“Then who did?”
He looked at Eleanor.
“That’s what I came here to find out.”
Eleanor suddenly spoke.
“Sophia, your mother asked me to protect you.”
Sophia stared.
“My mother died five years ago.”
“I know.”
“Then why have you never spoken to me?”
Eleanor’s eyes filled.
“Because the last time I tried, someone broke into my house.”
Vanessa snapped.
“Stop talking.”
Sophia turned toward her.
Vanessa’s earlier cruelty suddenly looked different.
She had not been jealous.
May you like
She had been panicking.
And Sophia wanted to know why.
