All Chapters of THE HOUSE KEEPER : Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

Julian's pov“This is unacceptable.”The delivery driver took a step back.Julian Blackwood put down his pen. He had been looking through a pile of quarterly reports that he no longer cared about. Now, he was listening to a woman's angry voice coming from two floors below.Her voice was sharp. It sounded like someone who had lost her patience a long time ago and was now speaking out of pure anger.“Unacceptable?” the woman replied. “You brought bruised tomatoes for a man who complains when his eggs are even slightly wrong. Do you want to explain that to him, or should I?”Julian stood up from his desk without even thinking about it.He told himself it was because of the noise. It was eleven in the morning, and someone was shouting in his courtyard as if they were in a busy market.He walked to the window.Two floors below, beside the building's private entrance, stood his housekeeper.She was small, with dark hair, and her hands were firmly on her hips. She looked ready for a fight, a

Julian's POVThe boardroom smelled like money and fear, and Julian had never hated being there more than he did that morning.“It's a good deal,” said Frasier, the CFO.He tapped his pen against the table as if the sound would somehow make the numbers easier to accept.“Their environmental violations are small compared to the profit we'd make.”“A small problem,” Julian repeated.“Julian—”“We are not joining a company that dumped chemical waste into a residential water supply just because paying the fine was cheaper than fixing the problem.”He closed the folder in front of him harder than he meant to.“Find me another deal. This meeting is over.”He left before anyone could argue with him.If they argued, he would have to explain himself.And he was tired.Very tired.Not the kind of tired that sleep could fix.He was tired of explaining himself to men who measured everything with numbers.The car ride home did nothing to make him feel better.Neither did the elevator.It was quiet,

Zoe's POVThe security floor was empty at 6 a.m.That was exactly why Zoe had chosen that time.As she walked down the service stairs, her heart was beating hard against her chest.She kept telling herself that what she was doing made sense, It was reasonable.If someone found out that their boss's life was in danger, wouldn't they try to find proof instead of just sitting and doing nothing?At least, that's what Zoe told herself.But right now, her hands were shaking badly.She almost dropped her master keycard twice before finally putting it into the card reader.The light turned red, Denied.“Come on,” she whispered, trying again.“Come on, come on…”She tried one more time.This time, the light turned green.The door clicked open.Zoe quickly stepped into Marcus Webb's office.Her heart was beating so loudly that she could hear it in her ears.She carefully closed the door behind her.She was so nervous that even the small sound of the door locking made her feel like the whole bui

Zoe's POVJulian 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 wor

Zoe's POVThe man was waiting for her near the laundry room.That was how Zoe knew, almost immediately, that something was wrong.Staff members didn't usually stay around the laundry room. There was no reason to.The place was nothing special. It was just a room filled with washing machines, bottles of detergent, piles of towels, and the constant low sound of the building's machines working behind the walls.But the man was standing there.He leaned against the doorframe with his arms crossed.A security badge was clipped to his belt.Zoe had never seen that badge before.She slowed down as she approached, a basket of clean towels balanced against her hip."Long day?" the man asked."Something like that."Zoe tried to walk past him.He didn't exactly block her way.But he didn't move either.Something about him made the small hairs on the back of her neck stand up.She knew that feeling.She had felt it many years ago when she was a child in foster care. Sometimes, she could walk into