Chapter Two — Collected
719 Words
They came the next morning.
Her father knocked on her door at eight and told her a car was waiting outside. She had already packed. One bag, practical, nothing she would grieve losing. She had spent the previous evening going through her room with a kind of calm she did not entirely trust, choosing what mattered and leaving the rest.
Sera was in the hallway when she came out.
"Where are you going?" Sera asked. She was still in her pyjamas, hair everywhere, looking younger than nineteen.
"I am going to stay with someone for a while."
"Who?"
"Someone Dad knows. It is complicated but it is fine."
Sera looked at her for a long moment the way she did when she knew Nora was leaving something out. Then she stepped forward and hugged her hard. Nora held on a beat longer than she normally would.
"Call me every day," Sera said into her shoulder.
"Every day," Nora said. "I promise."
She did not look at her father on the way out.
The car outside was black and expensive and the man leaning against it was not what she expected. She had braced herself for something cold and intimidating. What she got instead was a man in his thirties with an easy posture and the kind of face that looked like it smiled often. He straightened when he saw her and extended a hand.
"Marcus," he said. "I work for Mr. Deveraux."
She shook his hand. "Nora."
"I know." He took her bag before she could argue about it and opened the back door for her. "It is about forty minutes. Traffic depending."
She got in. He got in the front and pulled away from the curb and that was that. She watched her street disappear through the window and did not let herself feel it.
"Is he what I should be worried about?" she asked after a few minutes. "Your employer."
Marcus glanced at her in the rearview mirror. "Worried is a strong word."
"That is not a no."
He almost smiled. "Mr. Deveraux is particular. He has expectations and he does not explain them twice. But he is not unreasonable." He paused. "Most of the time."
"Most of the time," she repeated.
"You will be fine," he said, and she got the feeling he meant it even if it was not the whole truth.
She turned back to the window and watched the city change around her as they drove. The streets got wider. The buildings got taller and cleaner. By the time the car stopped she was somewhere that felt like a different world entirely.
The building was glass and steel and went up further than she felt like counting. A doorman held the entrance open without being asked. Marcus led her to a private elevator and pressed a button for the top floor.
The doors opened directly into the penthouse.
It was the most beautiful space she had ever stood in and it felt like no one lived there. Everything was expensive and perfectly placed and completely cold. No clutter. No mess. No sign that a person actually moved through it every day.
A woman appeared from down the hall. Older, warm faced, moving with the quiet efficiency of someone who knew exactly where everything was and had for a long time.
"Miss Callahan." She smiled and it reached her eyes, which was more than Nora had expected from anyone in this building. "I am Elena. I look after the house. Let me show you your room."
"Thank you," Nora said, and followed her.
Marcus set her bag inside the bedroom door and gave her a small nod before he left. Elena showed her the room, the bathroom, the wardrobe that was already stocked with clothes in her size, which was unsettling in a way she decided to deal with later.
"Mr. Deveraux?" Nora asked.
"Traveling," Elena said simply. "He will return in a day or two."
Nora nodded. She stood in the middle of the beautiful cold room with her one bag on the floor and looked around at a life that was not hers.
"Are you hungry?" Elena asked from the doorway.
Nora almost said no. Then her stomach made the decision for her. She followed Elena to the kitchen and sat down.
- Writer
