Chapter 4 - The Woman Everyone Blamed
Chadworth did not open the paper immediately.
That surprised everyone.
Especially Sabina.
“What is this?” she demanded.
He ignored her.
His daughters were still holding him.
For once, whatever business waited, whatever explanation Sabina wanted to give, whatever secret sat inside that folded sheet of paper—none of it mattered more than the two children in his arms.
He looked at Lorelai.
“You tried to tell me before, didn’t you?”
She nodded.
“How many times?”
“I don’t know.”
The answer devastated him.
Not because she could not remember.
Because there had been enough attempts to lose count.
“I’m sorry.”
Lorelai stared at him.
Chadworth did not excuse himself.
He did not mention work.
He did not explain that thousands of employees depended on him.
He simply said it again.
“I’m sorry.”
Gemma touched his sleeve.
“You’re not going back to Canada?”
A strange laugh escaped him.
“No.”
“Ever?”
“Not tonight.”
That seemed sufficient.
Sabina crossed her arms.
“This is ridiculous.”
Chadworth slowly stood.
“Malcolm.”
The security chief appeared at the end of the corridor.
Sabina’s eyes widened.
Chadworth handed him the folded paper.
“Make a copy. Bring the original back.”
Sabina moved forward.
“That belongs to me.”
Nobody had told her what it was.
The hallway became silent.
Chadworth turned.
“How do you know?”
Sabina stopped.
A tiny mistake.
But Chadworth had spent his career watching people reveal themselves through tiny mistakes.
“I assumed,” she said.
“Based on?”
“Lorelai has taken things from my room before.”
“No, I haven’t!” Lorelai cried.
Chadworth lifted a hand.
“It’s okay.”
Sabina stared at him.
“You’re taking a child’s word over mine?”
“No.”
Her expression softened slightly.
Then Chadworth finished.
“I’m taking the cameras.”
Sabina’s face changed.
Rosamund looked at him.
“The cameras?” Sabina repeated.
“I never went to Canada.”
Silence.
“I came back through the service entrance.”
Chadworth stepped closer.
“I’ve been watching since this morning.”
Sabina’s composure fractured.
Only briefly.
Then she recovered.
“So you spied on me?”
“I watched my own home after you accused an employee of stealing from me.”
“She did.”
“No.”
Sabina blinked.
“I watched you remove the missing bracelet from my study.”
Rosamund’s mouth parted.
Lorelai stared at Sabina.
For the first time, Sabina had no immediate answer.
Chadworth continued.
“You told me Rosamund was manipulating my daughters.”
“She is.”
“I watched her protect them from you.”
“You saw fifteen minutes!”
“I saw five months.”
That ended the argument.
Sabina looked toward Malcolm.
Archived footage.
She understood instantly.
Then her eyes moved to Rosamund.
“You.”
Rosamund did not answer.
“You saved those recordings.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Rosamund’s voice was quiet.
“Because nobody believed the girls.”
Sabina laughed.
“Oh, please. You wanted my place from the beginning.”
Rosamund’s expression shifted from fear to disbelief.
“Your place?”
“You wanted this house. His money. Those children treating you like their mother—”
“Enough,” Chadworth said.
Sabina turned toward him.
“You can’t possibly believe this performance.”
Chadworth looked at Rosamund.
He remembered how often he had overlooked her.
How easy it had been to accept Sabina’s version because Sabina belonged naturally in his world.
She attended galas.
She knew investors.
She understood etiquette.
Rosamund cleaned rooms.
That difference had mattered more to him than he wanted to admit.
He had judged credibility partly by status.
And Sabina had understood that.
Malcolm returned with the paper.
“Sir.”
Chadworth opened it.
It was not a contract.
Not exactly.
It was a printed email draft.
Several paragraphs concerned schools.
Two names appeared.
Lorelai Prescott.
Gemma Prescott.
A boarding academy in Switzerland.
Chadworth read the opening lines twice.
Sabina had been communicating with an admissions consultant.
She had described herself as the girls’ “soon-to-be legal guardian.”
The document discussed enrollment after the wedding.
There was also a line about minimizing “disruption to the couple’s new household.”
Chadworth looked up.
“You planned to send my daughters away?”
Sabina shook her head.
“No. I researched options.”
“You told them I agreed.”
“I was trying to prepare them.”
“For something I never discussed?”
“You’re never home, Chad.”
The words hit because they were true.
Sabina saw it.
She pressed harder.
“You know what your life is. London one week. Chicago the next. Toronto. Singapore. Los Angeles. Who raises them while you’re gone?”
Chadworth looked at Rosamund.
Sabina followed his gaze.
“Exactly. The maid.”
Rosamund flinched.
Sabina continued.
“I was trying to create structure.”
“By making them afraid of you?”
“They need discipline.”
“By telling them I wouldn’t believe them?”
Sabina hesitated.
“They misunderstand things.”
“By planting your bracelet?”
Her silence answered.
Chadworth folded the document.
“Malcolm, Sabina is leaving tonight.”
Sabina stared.
“You cannot be serious.”
“I am.”
“We’re getting married in six weeks.”
“No.”
That one word landed harder than shouting.
Sabina’s face emptied.
Chadworth removed his engagement ring from the small chain he sometimes wore when traveling and placed it on the hallway table.
“There will be no wedding.”
Sabina’s voice dropped.
“You’ll regret humiliating me like this.”
“This isn’t about humiliating you.”
He looked toward his daughters.
“It’s about finally listening to them.”
Malcolm escorted Sabina downstairs while another security employee arranged for her belongings to be collected.
She did not scream.
She did not create a dramatic scene.
She simply looked back at Chadworth before disappearing down the stairs.
“You think Rosamund saved your family?”
Chadworth said nothing.
Sabina gave a strange, bitter smile.
“You still don’t know why she really came here.”
Rosamund went pale.
Chadworth saw it.
So did Lorelai.
Sabina disappeared downstairs.
For several seconds nobody spoke.
Then Chadworth turned toward Rosamund.
“What did she mean?”
Rosamund stared at the floor.
“Mr. Prescott…”
“Why did you come here?”
Rosamund’s hands tightened around her apron.
Five months of recordings had shown Chadworth what Sabina was hiding.
But the expression on Rosamund’s face told him there was still another secret inside his mansion.
May you like
And this one belonged to the woman who had protected his daughters.
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