Chapter seven: Paranoid

Zoe's POV

Julian was already at his desk, dressed and working on his laptop. He had the quiet, serious look of a man who didn't like being disturbed before nine in the morning.

"Your coffee," Zoe said as she placed it on his desk.

Then, before she could change her mind, she added, "I need to tell you something."

He didn't look up.

"If this is about the towels—"

"It's not about the towels."

Her voice came out sharper than she intended.

Julian finally looked up. One eyebrow rose slightly at her tone.

"I found something," Zoe said. "A flash drive. Marcus dropped it near the trash on the security floor."

Something changed in Julian's face.

It wasn't concern. Not yet.

He simply looked at her with calm attention, the same way he looked at reports from the board.

"And?"

"And I opened it."

She forced herself to continue, even though his expression became colder.

"There were messages. Between Marcus and someone he called 'R.' They were talking about..." She paused, trying to find the right words. "They were talking about you being 'out of the picture' before a board vote. There were building plans and elevator override codes."

Silence filled the room.

Julian slowly put his pen down.

The movement was calm and controlled, but somehow it felt louder than if he had thrown the pen.

"Let me make sure I understand this," he said slowly. "You went through my head of security's private files, and now you're telling me he's planning to kill me."

"Yes."

"Based on a flash drive you found in the trash."

"Near the trash," Zoe corrected.

She immediately wished she hadn't.

Julian's jaw tightened.

"Zoe."

The way he said her name sounded like a warning.

"Marcus Webb has worked for this family for eleven years. He has been checked, investigated, and trusted with information that you will probably never have access to in this house."

He paused.

"And you're telling me you broke into his private files because of a rumor."

"I'm telling you what I read—"

"Is this about the raise?"

His voice became flat and cold.

It was the same voice he used when he thought he had already figured out a problem and was disappointed by how simple it was.

"Because if you think you're not being paid enough, there are better ways to talk about it than making up some kind of conspiracy."

"I'm not making this up."

Zoe's hands tightened into fists beside her body.

Heat rose up her neck.

"Why would I make this up? What would I possibly gain by lying to you about something like this?"

"I don't know."

Julian stood up.

He straightened to his full height, the way he always did when he had decided a conversation was finished.

"Attention. Drama."

He looked at her.

"I've met people like you before, Ms. Hart."

"People like me?"

Zoe's voice cracked.

Not because she was going to cry.

She refused.

Absolutely refused to cry in front of this man.

Her voice broke because she was so angry that she could hardly believe what she was hearing.

"You don't know anything about people like me."

"I know you've been looking for a reason to make my life difficult since the day you started working here."

Zoe stared at him.

"I've been trying to survive your difficult life since the day I started!"

The words came out louder than she expected.

They stayed in the air between them.

Too loud.

Too honest.

For one second, Zoe saw something change in Julian's face.

It was small, almost impossible to notice.

A tiny crack in his usual calm expression.

But it was there.

Then it disappeared.

His face became cold again.

"I have a meeting," Julian said.

His voice was firm and final.

"Return whatever you took to wherever you found it."

He walked toward the door.

Then he stopped.

"And Zoe..."

He didn't quite turn to look at her.

"If I find out you've been going through private staff files again, this conversation will have a very different ending."

Then he walked out.

The door closed behind him.

Zoe stood alone in his study.

She was shaking with anger.

She had never felt this angry before.

It was the kind of anger that had nowhere to go.

She looked at the coffee sitting untouched on his desk.

For one wild moment, she wanted to pick it up and throw it straight at the door he had just walked through.

But she didn't.

She took a deep breath.

"Fine," she thought.

Her eyes burned, but she blinked quickly.

She refused to let a single tear fall.

Fine.

Let him die, then.

See if I care.

But even as the thought crossed her mind, she knew it wasn't true.

That was the worst part.

She cared.

She cared far more than she wanted to.

And now she was standing there with information that could save his life, while the man himself thought she was nothing more than a paranoid housekeeper looking for attention.

Zoe looked toward the closed door.

For a moment, she wondered if she should leave it alone.

Maybe Julian was right.

Maybe she had misunderstood what she saw.

Maybe the messages didn't mean what she thought they meant.

But then she remembered the words on the flash drive.

Out of the picture.

The building plans.

The elevator codes.

The messages between Marcus and "R."

Her stomach tightened.

No.

She wasn't imagining it.

Something was wrong.

And whether Julian believed her or not, Zoe knew she couldn't simply forget what she had seen.

She picked up the tray.

Her hands were still shaking.

She looked at the untouched coffee one last time.

"Stubborn man," she whispered.

Then she turned and walked out of the study.

She didn't know what she was going to do next.

But she knew one thing.

She wasn't going to sit back and wait for something terrible to happen.