The Dragon Mother Returns: Taking Back Everything That Belongs to My Daughter novel · Chapter 7 of 24

Chapter 7: My House

"I let myself in," I said. "Through my own kitchen."

Lionel smiled.

He came three steps into the room and stopped by the island, where the light was best for Paisley's camera.

"You're trespassing again. In the middle of the night. With a man nobody knows, in a house full of women."

Matthias was still sitting in the staff-room doorway with his mug.

He didn't get up.

"I am sitting down," he said. "Very slowly. Nobody worry."

One of the security men snorted. The other one looked at the floor.

Lionel's smile thinned.

"Wake everyone," he told the bigger guard. "I want witnesses."

So the guard went out to the garage wing and woke the staff.

The cook came down in a cardigan. Two young maids came in sweatpants, sleepy, frightened. The night man from the gatehouse came in with his flashlight still on.

They lined up along the counter.

Somebody had, and here I was.

Lionel spread his hands.

"This woman," he said, "has been telling people she's my late wife. Tonight she broke into this house to get at Clara. Somebody let her in."

He turned to the housekeeper at the sink.

She was drying the copper pan.

"You've been with this family thirty years," he said warmly. "Nobody knew Marguerite like you did. Tell everyone. Tell the camera. Is this her?"

The kitchen went silent.

Paisley moved down one more step, to get the angle.

The housekeeper put the copper pan on its hook.

She folded the dish towel in half, then in half again, and laid it on the counter.

"Mr. Keel," she said. "I'd like to give my notice."

Lionel laughed. "What?"

"I resign. Tonight. I've worked in this kitchen since I was thirty, and I'm not going to stand in it and call that woman a liar. That's Marguerite. I put a Band-Aid on that chin when she was fourteen."

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