Knox helped me to get comfortable, propping my foot up on a small red pillow. I sank into the thick cushions behind me, my hands sliding over the smooth material. It had a leathery feel, but I could tell it was synthetic. I loved it immediately.
“It’s not leather,” Knox said as he pulled a blanket over my legs.
“I noticed.”
I was not a fan of leather because I knew that some poor animal had sacrificed for it. Back when I was a kid, I used to complain to my father about how many animals had to die so Kitty could fill our house. Needless to say, Rhett hadn’t found my complaints amusing.
“How long have you lived here?”
Knox took a step back and removed his suit coat. “I don’t.”
I glanced past him, toward the grand piano sitting in the far corner. “Is this Kieran’s place?”
Knox met my gaze as he draped his coat over the back of a chair. “No.”
“Then whose is—”
“I prepared a light snack and drinks,” came a voice from behind me.
I shifted, looking over the back of the couch to the man who was strolling into the room carrying a tray laden with a variety of bowls and glasses. It took a moment for me to recognize him. He looked so different than what I remembered, probably because he wasn’t wearing the hideous brown slacks and tan button-up shirt that Kitty had insisted the staff wear. His hair was also mussed in a style that my stepmother would’ve hated.
Instantly there were tears in my eyes. “Stewart?”
“At your service, my dear Emily,” he said with an enormous smile.
My gaze darted between the two men as I tried to figure out what was going on here.
“This is your apartment, Em,” Knox explained easily.
“What? I don’t…”
Before he could explain—if he even would’ve at all—Knox’s cell phone rang. He pulled it from his pocket, peered at the screen, then excused himself to take the call.
Stewart set down the treat-laden tray on the glass coffee table, then perched on the edge of the sofa cushion, his hand finding mine gently. He twined our fingers and I squeezed, still not believing this was real.
“I can’t believe you’re finally here,” he said sweetly, his blue eyes glittering with what looked like tears.
“That’s my line,” I told him with a watery chuckle. “How…?”
“I am so sorry I couldn’t tell you,” he said softly. “Mr. Montgomery told me I wasn’t allowed to.”
“You work for him?”
“He offered me and Guillermo jobs—”
“Wait. What?When?”
Stewart’s gaze dropped to the floor. “The last time he was at the Campbell estate. He talked to me when he came down for your birthday.”
Two years ago?
I stared at him, feeling both betrayed and elated, the two emotions warring oddly within me. I was grateful Stewart and Guillermo hadn’t been out of a job, but I was angry that they now worked for the man who’d stolen everything from my family. At the same time, I was too thrilled to be reunited with one of the only friends I’d ever had in this world to think about Knox’s betrayal.
Realizing what Stewart had said, I glanced toward the kitchen. “Guillermo’s here?”
“Well, not herehere,” he said with a laugh, patting my hand. “We live in an apartment two floors below. There’s a secret access so we can come and go undetected when it’s necessary.”
“Youlivetogether?”
