Chapter Eight

Emily made her way down the stairs, relieved that Maria was nowhere in sight, and strolled down the hallway toward the sunroom, smiling to Jose as she passed him.

"Morning ma'am. Sleep well?"

"Yes I did Jose. Thank you very much."

She stepped into the sunroom, quickly turning back and sticking her head out the door yelling to Jose before he could get away.

"How was your granddaughters recital?"

She laughed at the way his eyes lit up and the excitement in his voice at the mere mention of her.

"Oh...she was wonderful Emily. She danced her little toes right off and her voice sounded like.....like an angel. Rosa and I couldn't be more proud of her. Thank you for asking."

She grinned to herself, watching as he walked from sight, and turned in the doorway stopping short as she spotted Lance sitting at the table watching her. Her eyes shifted toward the ground and she nervously cleared her throat, walking toward the table where she always sat for breakfast, and pulled out the chair sitting down and placing her napkin in her lap.

"Surprised to see you here on a saturday morning. I thought you would be out working or playing golf again."

His eyes never left her as she grabbed a muffin, placing it on her plate, and broke it open spreading butter across the inside of it making sure to avoid eye contact.

"You and Jose seem to have made good friends. I didn't realise he had so much time on his hands. I'll have to speak to Maria about............."

"You don't have to speak to Maria about anything." She said angrily, placing her knife on her plate, making eye contact with him.

"Jose is the only one in this place who speaks to me and keeps me from going insane while I'm locked inside this house. I've been here over two weeks Lance and you barely talk to me. I would greatly appreciate it if you would arrange one of your cars for me so I could get out of here today and go into town. I need to find some sanity."

He leaned back in his chair folding his arms across his chest, and arched his brow, watching as her hands flailed around as she spoke.

"You are not here to make friends and carry on conversations with my staff. You have a job here, just like the rest of them, and you are to leave my staff alone and let them do their jobs. You speak to no one unless you are requesting something from them, conversations are forbidden, is that understood?"

She leaned back in her seat, distancing herself from him as he leaned toward her, his nose mere inches from hers, and his tone laced with sarcasm and anger. Her heart raced from both fear and anger from this new side she was seeing of him, and she clenched her jaw, speaking in the calmest tone she could.

"You are paying me to be your date to your little rich functions, not to be some damn muse locked up inside your prison. NOW....you either arrange for me to be taken into town by someone or yourself, OR I will simply call a cab. You can not keep me locked up here."

She surprised him as well as herself with the way she had spoken to him, and folded her arms across her chest, staring at him as if in challenge. A sly grin spread across his face, and he brought his left foot up, resting his ankle on his knee, and propped his elbow on the table, bringing his coffee cup to his lips, giving it a gentle blow.

"Tell me something Emily, do you make it a habit of signing contracts without reading them, or was it just those dollar signs dancing around in your eyes that blinded you to the fine print?"

Her heart beat wildly, threatening to jump from her chest, and her eyes widened as her mind raced to think back to the papers she had signed. The morning that Lance had picked her up from her apartment he had given her the contracts, along with the money, and she signed both copies quickly without so much as glancing at the print. The large amount of money offered to her had indeed excited her so much that she would have signed a pact with the devil had he offered, and somehow Emily feared she just had.

"Contr.....contracts can be broken you know?" She stuttered, wanting to run away from him and find those papers as quickly as she could.

"Oh no Emily. See that is where you are wrong." He said, sitting his cup back to the table and leaning in closer to her with a satisfied grin, knowing he had her trapped.

"Not this contract my dear. You forget that I am a lawyer, and a damn good one at that, this is one contract that can not be broken, and should you try, you will pay dearly."

He stood from his chair tucking his crisp checkered shirt back into his well starched jeans from where it had loosened, and stepped closer to her, leaning down to kiss the top of her head.

"I've got some things to tend to today, but I'll be home later and we'll be having some guest for dinner. Get yourself ready and see to it that you get yourself down those stairs on time. Have a good day."

He walked from the room, leaving behind the soft echo of his chuckle, and Emily closed her eyes taking slow deep breaths to calm herself. She had to find those contracts and then get to Marty as quick as she could. If there was anyone who could help her right now it would be him, and she would have to do it quickly.

Jumping from her chair, she bolted from the room, almost knocking Jose down, and apologized, quickly making her way up the stairs to her room and into the closet searching for the suitcases she had brought with her. Most of her belongings had been left in her bags when she had unpacked, knowing she wouldn't need them with all the nice things Lance had provided her with. She had remembered clearly shoving those papers in the front zipper compartment of her suitcase, but now as she roamed the closet, pulling out items from the corners of the floor, those bags were nowhere to be found, and she felt the tears stinging her eyes as she moved back to the bedroom continuing her search.

Frustration and anger set in as her search came up empty handed, and she ran from the room grabbing Olivia by the shoulders, stopping her as she passed, and took a shaky breath as she tried to calm down.

"Olivia, my suitcases are missing, it is VERY urgent that I get some papers from them. Do you know where they are?"

The young girl winced as Emily squeezed her shoulders hard, and nodded, feeling frightened by the crazed girl before her.

"Ye.....yes ma'am, Maria took took them down to storage."

Emily smiled in relief, releasing the girl from her grip and moved to the top of the stairs, motioning for Olivia to follow.

"Come on then, you can show me where they are."

Olivia shook her head frantically, and took a step back gasping in horror as though Emily had just asked her to commit a murder.

"No ma'am. The only one allowed down there is Maria or Mr. Bass. None of us others dare go near the door. Mr. Bass has already warned us."

Feeling her frustration build again, Emily moved back closer to her, reaching out to grab her arm as she pleaded with the young girl to help her.

"Olivia please. I MUST have those papers. Lance will be angry with me if I don't get them, and like you, I don't want him angry with me. We'll be quick...I promise. Just please help me find those suitcases."

Olivia looked around as if pondering the thought for a moment, then quickly shook her head looking back to Emily once again.

"I can't ma'am, I just can't, but Maria will help you, just tell her what you told me and ......."

Emily released her arm, screaming in frustration as she moved back to the top of the stairs glancing over her shoulder to Olivia.

"Ahhhhhh......just FORGET it....and you better forget we even had this conversation....got it?"

Olivia nodded in fear and waited till Emily was out of site before continuing down the hall to Emilys room to clean.

********************************

The stairway was dark as she closed the door quietly behind her, but the light in the hall just below her cascaded just enough light for her to make it down the stairs safely. The

stairwell leading to the lower floor was just as beautiful as the one in the foyer and it surprised her, seeing that it led to nowhere but storage. Muffled voices could be heard as she reached the bottom, and she looked around for a place to escape should someone see her.

The hallway was long, leading in both directions, and she looked to the right of her seeing several doorways where sounds were coming from. To her left was nothing but one doorway and she took in a deep breath, holding it, as she tip toed in that direction, placing her hand on the door knob and her ear to the door listening carefully for any sounds from inside, once she felt it was safe, she turned the knob opening the door, and quickly stepped into the darkness closing the door behind her.

Her hand ran up and down the wall, finally landing on a switch, and she flipped it, blinking several times, adjusting to the light before inching herself forward, inspecting all that was around her. She was in an office, which was odd considering Lance had told her his office was located on the third floor, and she slid her finger along the mahogany desk checking for any signs of dust. Every piece of furniture had been carefully polished and the files laying on top of the desk indicated to her that the office was still used, and not something that was used in the past, long forgotten.

Making her way around the desk, she pulled out the large chair to have a seat, and stopped short, hearing voices just outside the door. Quickly she pushed the chair back to it's spot and as quietly as she could, made her way back to the light switch, shutting it off and plunging herself back into darkness. Her heart raced as she frantically tried to think of a place to hide, and pressed her ear to the door, hearing the foot steps echo as they became distant. Once silence had reached the air again she carefully opened the door looking around, and ran from the room, unintentionally slamming the door behind her, bolting to the top of the stairs where she once again listened for any sounds of life before entering back into the foyer.

Her eyes instantly locked with Olivia's as she turned from the door, and she raised a finger to her lips, giving her a warning of silence, as she continued through the foyer and back up the stairs to her room closing and locking the door behind her, and falling to her bed in exhaustion.

Things about the house no longer seemed right to her, and she vowed once company left and Maria was gone, she would go back down again to investigate. If there was supposed to be nothing down there but storage, then why was the office so finely polished, and why had voices echoed through the halls?  But most of all, she had to find those paper and get out of that house as soon as possible.