Chapter 1 - THE WOMAN ON CAMERA NINE
Adrian Moretti had spent eight months barely noticing Marin Dade beyond the roles she filled inside his Chicago mansion: housekeeper, caregiver, employee, the woman who somehow made his traumatized six-year-old son Noah feel safe.
Then, at 1:07 one Tuesday morning, everything changed.
While reviewing the mansion’s security feeds, Adrian saw Marin alone in the kitchen on Camera Nine. Believing no one was watching, she put in her earbuds and danced. There was no performance in it, no attempt to attract attention. She simply moved with a joy Adrian had never seen from her before.
For six minutes, the feared widowed power broker could not look away.
The next morning, Adrian began noticing details he had ignored for months. The way Marin made strawberries into stars for Noah. The way Noah laughed around her. The way Marin’s entire personality became smaller and more guarded whenever Adrian entered a room.
Then Adrian remembered something else.
Marin had a graduate degree.
She had once studied early childhood development at the University of Wisconsin, and she was far more qualified than her position in his home required.
Unable to stop himself, Adrian asked the question he should have asked eight months earlier.
Why was a highly educated twenty-nine-year-old woman cleaning his mansion and caring for one child?
Marin answered that she had needed stability.
May you like
But when Adrian asked, “For what?” the warmth disappeared from her face.
And for the first time, Adrian realized the woman who knew almost everything about his son had managed to keep almost everything about herself hidden from him.
