Chapter 4: The Leak

By nine the next morning, I had a plan for the Saltonstalls, and I had paid for none of it.

Brielle had copied my decoy phone at seven the night before.

She had read every fake message I left there.

I walked into the estate's glass breakfast room, where Eugene was eating eggs alone.

He did not look up.

"I'll have your answer by Friday," he said.

"I didn't come for the money," I said. "I came to warn you."

His fork stopped.

"Your daughter was in my guesthouse last night. She copied my phone."

"She did what?"

"I let her." I sat across from him. "Mr. Saltonstall, I'm a professional. I read people's families for a living."

"Then read mine," he said, very quietly.

"Brielle has drafted a motion for this afternoon's board meeting. It removes you as chairman and puts her on the executive committee in your place."

I watched the idea hit him.

"She wouldn't."

"She signed the eviction notices for the Flats without telling you. You didn't know."

He put the fork down.

I saw it then, in the set of his shoulders, that he truly had not known.

He did not like a signature on his own project that was not his.

"I want it in writing," he said.

"I can't give you that. She'd see me do it."

"I'll find it myself."

"Please do," I said, and stood. "I'm only a guest."

I found Brielle at ten, in the foundation's glass offices on the second floor.

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