Chapter 2 - The Drawing
The blinking red light inside the bronze horse felt like a burning eye staring directly into my soul.
I quickly snapped the hidden compartment shut, my hands shaking violently as I realized the immense danger I had just stumbled into.
Dominic Vale was a man who destroyed anyone who even looked at him with disrespect.
If he knew there was a surveillance bug in his own home, the ensuing bloodbath would likely spare no one, including the new nanny.
I quietly slipped the heavy horse into my cleaning apron and replaced it with a similar statue from the hallway pedestal.
The next morning, I entered Noah’s bedroom to find him hiding underneath his massive oak bed, clutching a blank sketchbook.
Instead of dragging him out like the previous nannies had attempted, I simply slid a box of expensive crayons across the hardwood floor.
I lay flat on my stomach on the expensive rug, maintaining a safe, respectful distance from his terrified hiding spot.
For two grueling hours, we passed the sketchbook back and forth without speaking a single word.
I drew silly cartoon dogs, and he responded by aggressively scribbling dark, chaotic black clouds over the pages.
Slowly, the frantic energy left his small body, and he crawled out from under the bed to sit beside me.
He picked up a red crayon and began to draw a very specific, deliberate scene with an intensity that terrified me.
Noah drew a large black car flipping over a steep, jagged cliff.
He then carefully drew a second vehicle at the top of the cliff, coloring a very distinct, intricate silver eagle on its door.
My blood ran completely cold because I had seen that exact silver eagle emblem only an hour ago.
It was the custom hood ornament on the black SUV driven by Silas, Dominic’s most trusted right-hand man and head of security.
Noah was not just traumatized by a random car crash.
He had witnessed his mother being intentionally murdered by his father's best friend.
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Suddenly, the heavy wooden bedroom door swung open, and Mrs. Hargrove stepped inside with a perfectly manicured scowl.
"What exactly are you looking at, Clara?" she demanded, her sharp eyes locking directly onto Noah's revealing masterpiece.
