Rosa finally broke.
One evening, she stood in the doorway of Dominic’s study and said, “Boss, I need to talk to you.”
Dominic did not look up from the pile of papers on his desk.
“Speak.”
“I can’t take care of this house and the girls alone anymore. The house is too big. The girls need more care than I can give. I need to hire more people.”
His pen kept moving.
“Hire whoever you want, Rosa. Check their background thoroughly.”
That was all.
Three days later, Elena Vasquez stood in front of the Russo estate’s iron gate.
She looked up at the cameras, at least five she could count, probably more she could not see. The gate opened without her ringing anything. They had been watching her since the moment she stepped off the bus.
Inside, the mansion rose at the end of a stone driveway like a fortress pretending to be a home.
Two men in black suits stood by the front door. They did not smile. They did not greet her. They simply scanned her with hard eyes.
She noticed the bulges beneath their jackets.
Guns.
Go back, a voice inside her screamed.
But Elena needed the job.
She needed money for Miguel’s lawyer.
Fear was a luxury she could not afford.
Rosa interviewed her in the sitting room. For a long moment, she studied Elena without speaking.
Then she asked, “Are you scared?”
Elena knew Rosa did not mean the work.
She meant the cameras.
The guns.
The armored vehicles.
The air of danger that lived inside every hallway.
Elena looked straight into Rosa’s eyes.
“Yes,” she said. “I’m scared. But I’ve been scared of many things in my life. I’m still here.”
Something like respect flickered across Rosa’s face.
“You’re hired.”
On the tour of the house, Elena saw Dominic only once. He stepped from a room at the end of the second-floor hallway, speaking into his phone with a voice like a knife.
“Tell Santino if he doesn’t pay within 48 hours, he won’t need to pay anymore. Ever.”
He stopped when he saw Elena and Rosa.
His eyes swept over Elena with no interest at all, as if she were a chair someone had moved into the hallway.
Then he walked past.
