Chapter 6 - The Rule Natalie Broke
For the next three days, Lucas refused to let Natalie out of his sight.
He followed her into the kitchen.
The laundry room.
The library.
Even the hallway outside the staff bathroom.
Natalie finally stopped.
“Lucas.”
He looked up.
“You cannot stand outside the bathroom.”
“Why?”
“Because I would like two minutes of privacy.”
“What if somebody takes you?”
The question wiped away her frustration.
Natalie crouched.
“Nobody is taking me.”
“You don't know.”
“No.”
She chose honesty again.
“I don't know.”
Lucas's face tightened.
“But this is what we can do.”
She held up one finger.
“When I leave a room, I tell you where I'm going.”
A second finger.
“If I am going outside the house, I tell you.”
A third.
“And if plans change, I tell you.”
Lucas considered.
“Promise?”
“I promise to tell you the truth.”
It was not the promise he wanted.
It was better.
That evening Daniel asked Natalie to join him in the library.
“You need to leave.”
Natalie stared at him.
“No.”
His eyebrows rose.
“You didn't let me finish.”
“You were about to tell me it's dangerous.”
“It is.”
“And send me away.”
“Yes.”
“No.”
Daniel stood.
“This isn't a request.”
Natalie almost laughed.
“That line probably works on your employees.”
“You are my employee.”
“Then fire me.”
He went silent.
Natalie stepped closer.
“If you make me disappear after everything Lucas told us, you confirm his worst belief.”
Daniel looked toward the windows.
“I can't risk your life.”
“That is my decision.”
“You were nearly injured because of my son.”
“I was injured.”
“You were threatened.”
“Yes.”
“You could be killed.”
Natalie did not respond immediately.
Daniel lowered his voice.
“Why are you doing this?”
She knew what he meant.
Why Lucas?
Why this house?
Why risk anything?
Natalie sat.
“When I was nine, my mother left.”
Daniel said nothing.
“She said she was going to the grocery store.”
Natalie smiled without humor.
“I sat by the window until midnight.”
Daniel remained still.
“She came back three months later.”
“What happened?”
“She left again.”
Natalie looked at him.
“Eventually I stopped waiting.”
Daniel understood.
“You see yourself in Lucas.”
“No.”
Natalie shook her head.
“I see what happens if nobody teaches him that another person's leaving is not proof that he is unlovable.”
Daniel looked down.
The sentence reached somewhere he did not want touched.
“I thought money could fix what he lost.”
Natalie glanced around the enormous library.
“It can't.”
“I know that now.”
“Knowing isn't enough.”
His eyes lifted.
“You have to change what you do.”
Daniel stared at her.
People did not speak to Daniel Brooks that way.
Natalie had stopped caring.
“You want Lucas to trust you?”
“Yes.”
“Then show up.”
“I do.”
“No.”
She shook her head.
“You provide.”
“That isn't the same thing.”
The words stayed with him.
The next morning, Daniel canceled three meetings.
At breakfast, Lucas looked suspicious when his father sat beside him.
“Aren't you going downtown?”
“No.”
“Why?”
Daniel spread butter across toast.
“I thought we could spend the morning together.”
Lucas looked at Natalie.
She hid a smile.
“What would we do?”
Daniel clearly had no idea.
Natalie rescued him.
“Lucas has been building a bridge in the playroom.”
Daniel nodded seriously.
“I know bridges.”
Lucas narrowed his eyes.
“Toy bridges?”
Daniel glanced at Natalie.
“No.”
Lucas sighed.
“You can watch.”
It was a beginning.
At eleven, the mansion alarm sounded.
Daniel reached for Lucas instantly.
Security filled the hallway.
But there was no intruder.
Only a package at the front gate.
No return address.
Inside was a maid's uniform.
White.
Old.
Stained with dust.
Evelyn recognized it.
“Mara.”
Beneath the uniform was another note.
She should have kept quiet.
Natalie turned it over.
On the back were four words.
The new one should too.
Daniel looked at Natalie.
She knew what he would say.
“No.”
He exhaled.
“You are impossible.”
“I'm staying.”
Lucas had come into the foyer unnoticed.
He heard her.
May you like
His face changed.
For the first time, when Natalie said she was staying, Lucas believed her.
