Chapter 5 - The Interrogation of the Staff
By 9:00 PM, the grand ballroom of the Vance estate—a magnificent space with crystal chandeliers, gilded moldings, and marble floors—was transformed into a tribunal.
All twenty-four members of the estate staff—cooks, maids, gardeners, and maintenance workers—stood in a tight, nervous huddle near the center of the room. Two private security guards stood by the double doors, their presence making the air feel heavy and restrictive.
Julian stood on the raised dais at the end of the room, leaning casually against a Louis XIV mahogany table. Dr. Hayes was upstairs with Clara, monitoring her sleep as she finally found rest under heavy sedation and clean blankets.
At the front of the staff group stood Mrs. Gable, the head housekeeper. Her silver hair was neatly bunned, her black uniform pressed to perfection, but her hands were trembling against the fabric of her apron.
“Mrs. Gable,” Julian’s voice echoed off the marble walls, cold and unyielding.
“Mr. Vance,” Mrs. Gable began, her voice dripping with practiced subservience. “We were all so shocked by what happened with Ms. Sterling today. None of us had any idea—truly, sir—that the new girl was...”
“Stop talking,” Julian said.
The silence that followed was absolute.
Julian walked down the steps of the dais, his leather shoes clicking rhythmically against the floor. He stopped three feet in front of the head housekeeper. He didn't look at her face; he looked at her hands.
“Mrs. Gable, you’ve been running this estate for twelve years,” Julian said quietly. “You were here when my mother passed away. You were here when I married Clara. You knew every curve of my wife’s face, every inflection in her voice, every habit she had.”
“Sir, I—I’m an old woman, I just followed the rules Ms. Sterling set—trotting out orders—she threatened to fire everyone—!”
“She threatened to fire you?” Julian interrupted, his voice rising just enough to make the elderly woman flinch. “Is that why, every single day for four years, you walked past my wife scrubbing the baseboards with lye soap, and you looked the other way?”
“She wasn't your wife anymore, she was just a—a troubled girl Victoria took in off the streets!” Mrs. Gable stammered, her mask finally slipping as panic took over. “Victoria said if we helped her, we’d be prosecuted for harboring an unstable vagrant! We had families to feed, Mr. Vance! What were we supposed to do?”
“You were supposed to be human beings,” Julian snarled, finally losing his composure as a flash of pure rage crossed his face.
He turned away from her, scanning the faces of the other staff members. Most of them were staring at the floor, tears of shame and fear sliding down their cheeks. They had survived under Victoria’s iron fist through cowardice and silence, trading their souls for a paycheck.
“Every single one of you knew,” Julian said, his voice trembling with disgust. “Every one of you watched a human being get tortured, starved, and humiliated under your own roof, and not one of you picked up a phone to call the police. Not one of you had the courage to tell me.”
He turned back to Mrs. Gable.
“You’re all fired. Effective immediately. Security will escort you off the property tonight. Your final paychecks will be withheld pending a full police investigation into accessory to kidnapping and abuse.”
“Mr. Vance, please!” Mrs. Gable wailed, dropping to her knees just as Clara had done four days ago. “Have mercy! We have nowhere to go!”
“Mercy?” Julian looked down at her with cold indifference. “You didn't show my wife mercy when she was begging for water in the sub-basement. Get them out of my sight.”
The security guards moved in swiftly, grabbing the sobbing housekeeper by the arms and herding the stunned, silent staff toward the side exit. Within ten minutes, the grand ballroom was empty, leaving Julian alone in the vast, echoing silence of the house.
May you like
He closed his eyes, pressing the heels of his hands against his temples.
The house was finally clean of Victoria’s sycophants. But the ghosts of the past four years still lingered in every corner, whispering of a betrayal that ran deeper than he ever could have imagined.
