Chapter 5 - A Wet Uniform and a Dry Warning
By late afternoon, the estate was a ghost town as the dismissed staff loaded their belongings into cars and drove down the sweeping gravel drive. Diane Mercer glared out the window of her sedan as she passed the security gates, her mind already plotting how to reclaim what she felt she was owed. Unbeknownst to Maggie and Ethan, Diane’s dismissal wasn't just a loss of employment; it severed the primary human shield protecting Ethan’s financial empire from internal sabotage.
Inside the mansion, Maggie was given a temporary promotion to acting estate coordinator—a role vastly beyond her experience, but one Ethan insisted upon simply because she was the only person left he could trust. As she unpacked her meager belongings in a modest room near the east wing, she discovered a small piece of paper slipped beneath her door. It bore no signature, just a chilling, block-lettered sentence: “He’s blind to the wolves inside his own house, and soon, you’ll be meat for them too.” Maggie folded the note, sliding it into her pocket with a hardening resolve.
