Chapter 2 - The Interview
Six weeks earlier, Megan Foster had arrived at the Mason estate carrying a secondhand purse.
She had a lunch packed in a plastic grocery bag.
She had exactly eleven dollars in her checking account.
The mansion sat behind iron gates in Buckhead, Atlanta.
It sat on several acres of manicured lawn that looked expensive enough to have their own accountant.
Megan stood outside the service entrance and stared up at three stories of limestone, glass, and dark slate.
She muttered a prayer for an elevator.
The heavy wooden door finally opened.
Nancy Price, the sixty-two-year-old house manager, did not smile.
She looked Megan up and down with sharp, judging eyes.
Megan looked right back.
She asked if she should have worn pearls.
Nancy’s mouth twitched in annoyance.
She warned Megan that she was going to be a problem.
Megan simply replied that her mother said the same thing.
Nancy handed her a navy uniform and listed the strict daily schedule.
She gave one final, ominous warning about Mr. Mason.
She told Megan to do her work very quietly when he was around.
Megan asked if he slept all day or recorded audiobooks.
Nancy sternly replied that he simply valued silence.
She revealed that the last three cleaners had lasted eleven days, eight days, and four.
Megan thought of the rent notice taped to her refrigerator.
She thought of the daycare bills and the diapers.
She thought of her car transmission that sounded like loose silverware in a dryer.
She promised she could remember anything that paid twenty-two dollars an hour.
That afternoon, she met the infamous Dominic Mason.
He sat behind a broad walnut desk, reading financial reports.
His wheelchair was sleek, black, and nearly silent.
Megan had expected a seventy-year-old man based on the rumors.
Instead, he was thirty-six, broad-shouldered, and sharply handsome.
He looked perpetually furious.
He stated he knew she was the new maid.
Megan agreed, noting it saved them time on introductions.
He glared at her, completely unfazed by her sarcasm.
As Megan dusted his massive bookshelves, the silence became unbearable.
She asked if he had read all the books.
He coldly reminded her that he had asked Nancy for someone who could clean, not talk.
Megan retorted that she was multifunctional.
Dominic told her he preferred his house peaceful.
Megan pointed out that it was peaceful until she arrived.
Dominic stared at her with a look that could freeze water.
He slowly reached into his desk drawer and pulled out a thick yellow folder.
He tossed it onto the desk, revealing a large photograph paperclipped to the front.
May you like
Megan gasped as she recognized the photo.
It was a picture of her ex-boyfriend, Jason's father, standing in front of this very mansion.
