Chapter 1 - PLEASE DON’T LEAVE ME
The bronze horse flew before Daniel Brooks understood what he was seeing.
One second, five-year-old Lucas stood in the middle of the marble hallway with his small fists clenched.
The next, he grabbed the heavy decorative statue from the console table and hurled it with both hands.
“Natalie!”
The bronze horse struck Natalie Hayes against the side.
She stumbled backward.
The statue crashed onto the marble with a violent metallic crack.
Daniel entered the hallway at the same moment.
“Lucas, stop!”
His voice shook the room.
Two security men appeared from the adjoining corridor.
Lucas spun toward his father.
His face was red.
Wet with tears.
Wild with a mixture Daniel had learned to recognize but never understood.
Anger.
Fear.
Something deeper.
“You can’t make me!” Lucas screamed.
“Enough.”
Daniel crossed the hallway quickly.
Lucas turned toward Natalie again.
Before Daniel reached him, the boy rushed forward and kicked toward her leg.
Natalie could have moved away.
She didn’t.
Despite pressing one hand against her aching ribs, she slowly lowered herself onto her knees.
That confused Lucas more effectively than shouting would have.
His raised fist stopped.
Natalie looked directly into his tear-filled eyes.
No anger.
No disgust.
No fear.
“You’re carrying something very heavy in here,” she said softly, touching one hand to her chest.
Lucas’s fist trembled.
Then lowered.
Daniel stopped several feet away.
He had negotiated with men who carried guns.
He had stood calmly in rooms where one wrong sentence could start a war.
But he had no idea what to do with his own son.
Lucas stared at Natalie.
His mouth opened.
Nothing came out.
Then his entire body seemed to collapse.
He threw himself against her.
Natalie caught him with a painful wince.
Lucas wrapped both arms around her neck.
Daniel saw his son’s fingers twist desperately into the fabric of her moss-gray uniform.
“Please don’t leave me.”
The words were broken by sobs.
Natalie’s expression changed.
So did Daniel’s.
“Lucas…”
The boy held tighter.
“I’ll be good.”
Daniel felt something cold move through his chest.
Lucas had never said that before.
He had apologized for breaking things.
For yelling.
For throwing food.
But never like this.
Never as though good behavior were payment required to stop someone from disappearing.
“I’ll be good,” Lucas repeated. “Please.”
Natalie gently rubbed his back.
“I’m right here.”
Footsteps clicked near the staircase.
Evelyn Hart appeared.
The longtime Brooks house manager wore a black dress, pearl earrings, and the composed expression she had worn through almost every crisis in Daniel’s household for twelve years.
She looked at the bronze statue.
At Natalie.
At Lucas.
Then reached for her phone.
“I’ll have her replacement here by morning.”
Lucas went rigid.
“No!”
The scream echoed through the hallway.
He buried his face against Natalie.
“No, no, no!”
Daniel turned.
“Evelyn.”
She looked at him.
“I’ll call the agency tonight.”
“Put the phone away.”
Evelyn frowned.
“Daniel, she’s been injured.”
“Natalie can decide whether Natalie is leaving.”
Evelyn looked surprised.
Natalie looked even more surprised.
Daniel crouched beside his son.
“Lucas.”
The boy refused to look at him.
Daniel tried again.
“Why do you think Natalie is leaving?”
No response.
Evelyn answered instead.
“Because that is what happens when staff are assaulted.”
Daniel glanced up.
“I asked Lucas.”
Evelyn’s mouth tightened.
Lucas finally lifted his face.
His cheeks were wet.
“Because I was bad.”
Daniel’s expression softened.
“Who told you that?”
Lucas immediately looked toward Evelyn.
It lasted less than a second.
But Daniel saw it.
So did Natalie.
Evelyn stepped forward.
“He knows there are consequences.”
Daniel slowly stood.
“What consequences?”
Evelyn’s tone remained professional.
“Daniel, this is not the time.”
“Actually, it feels like exactly the time.”
Security personnel quietly disappeared farther down the corridor.
Everyone who had worked for Daniel long enough knew when not to remain nearby.
Evelyn folded her arms.
“Lucas has driven away six caregivers in eighteen months.”
Daniel looked at his son.
Six?
He knew there had been turnover.
He had not counted.
That realization bothered him.
“How many?” he asked.
Evelyn hesitated.
“Six.”
Natalie shifted Lucas carefully against her shoulder.
The boy whispered something.
Daniel could not hear.
“What did he say?”
Natalie looked uncomfortable.
Daniel waited.
Finally she said, “He said eleven.”
Evelyn’s face changed.
Barely.
But it changed.
Daniel looked down at Lucas.
“Eleven people left?”
Lucas sniffed.
“They always leave.”
Daniel felt the first edge of guilt.
“Why?”
The boy stared at the floor.
Then whispered:
“Mrs. Hart says people get tired when I’m difficult.”
Daniel slowly turned toward Evelyn.
She lifted her chin.
“That is not what I said.”
Lucas clung tighter to Natalie.
Daniel’s voice became quiet.
“What did you say?”
Evelyn did not answer immediately.
May you like
And for the first time in twelve years, Daniel Brooks looked at the woman who managed nearly every detail of his home—
and wondered what happened inside it when he wasn’t paying attention.
