CHAPTER 2

SERENA

The car ride to Zane’s estate was quiet, except for the hum of tires against wet asphalt. I sat in the back seat, papers spread across my lap, while the driver who was also Zane’s security, judging by the earpiece and the way his eyes kept flicking to the mirror, said nothing. He’d only given a brief introduction as Pete and murmured a “no” to me when he’d come to pick me up at my hotel and I tried to sit in the front with him.

With nothing to do but enjoy the scenery, I decided to look over Lori’s schedule. Her father’s assistant had sent it over along with the NDA and contracts. For some reason, I expected her to be enrolled in an overwhelming amount of afterschool activities, but I was pleasantly surprised to see that wasn’t the case. She had ballet and piano lessons and French classes, but it was nothing too crazy.

Pete finally stopped at a black gate, put his head out the window to scan his face, and then drove us down the longest driveway I’d ever seen. The house was even more massive than I’d anticipated, and I was starting to worry if this would be a bit harder than I planned.

I made note of the scan at the gate, and was still thinking about it when I saw Zane waiting at the front door.

“Follow me,” he said when I stepped out of the car. “I’ll show you to your room.”

I felt paralyzing levels of anxiety as we crossed the threshold into the house. This was it. This was the moment I’d been waiting for over three years.

The first thing I noticed was that the house was devoid of pictures or any sort of homeliness. It looked way too perfect, like something out of a magazine. You’d never guess a child lived here. I mean I didn’t expect Zane to have pictures of me up like he’d done years ago at our old home, but I at least thought he’d hang up photos of his— our daughter. I was dying to see what she looked like, and the lack of pictures didn’t help.

He led me up the staircase to the second floor, and I tried to make a mental map of the house, especially the doors and windows. For this to work, I needed to know of every possible exit point.

Finally we stopped in front of a sturdy wooden door, and he opened it.

“This is your room. Lori’s is just down the hall. You can get settled in and unpack. The housekeeper will give you a tour, and Pete will give you a rundown of the security measures after that.”

He nodded and turned to walk away without waiting to see if I had any questions, and I tried to hide my disappointment as I tapped him on the shoulder.

“Yes?”

“Am I not going to meet Lori?”

“She’s not here,” he answered with a straight face. “I’ll pick her up later, and you can meet her in the morning.”

“Do you need anything else, Miss Sterling?” He asked when I didn’t respond.

“No… thank you.”

He started to walk away again. “Pete will bring your bags up, and you can meet Lucy downstairs in the kitchen when you’re ready for the tour.”

**********

An hour later, I was unpacked and actively examining the furniture in the room like a crazy person. I knew I had tried my best to convince Zane that I was someone else, but if I knew him well, he didn’t give me this job because he fully believed my story, even if he pretended to. My face had gone through several reconstructions after that night, but I didn’t look that different than I did before, and I knew I would still have to put in a lot of work to really make him believe that I was someone else… someone who just looked like his wife. So I was pretty positive that there were cameras somewhere. The problem was that I couldn’t find them.

Before I could decide that I was probably just overthinking, my door burst open and a slender woman dressed in a black uniform walked in. My irritation was pretty evident on my face, but before I could ask why she thought it was okay to just come in without knocking, she cleared her throat and lifted her pointy nose.

“I’m Lucy. I’m in charge of this household, and I’ve been told to give you a tour. Follow me.” She already had her back turned to me before I could even lift my jaw up the floor.

“Are you deaf? I said follow me.” She spat over her back when she didn’t hear me follow behind her.

“I heard you just fine.” I spat back, struggling to hide my irritation.

Her nasty attitude threw me off, but she didn’t matter. I had a strict plan. I wasn’t here to make friends.

Lucy walked at an abnormal speed, pointing out different areas of the house with her long chin. “Supply closet, guest bedroom, movie theater, library.” When we reached the landing, she turned to me with a pinched face. “The level above us belongs to Mr Carter, you’re never to go up there.”

I nodded, even though I was dying from curiosity.

We ended up downstairs again, where she informed me that there was a chef on ground to prepare whatever I want, and I was to be down for breakfast every morning. After that, she left, and Pete met me in the living room.

He gave me a detailed explanation of how to get into the building, set up my face scan with a machine, and explained that I was never to take Lori anywhere without his or Zane’s consent. I also wasn’t allowed to have visitors over, but all of this was already mentioned in my contract.

And with every rule that he gave, I was starting to see that this whole thing was going to be much harder than I thought.