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This feels like a brand new start.

* * *

My first job has me working at the lobby, taking inventory of all the guest amenities and listing down what needs restocking. If I understand correctly, the reading materials at the sitting areas are free to browse but not to take home, and yet…

Huh.

I’m slowly counting all the Vogue editions when I start to notice something unusual. I’d like to think that my time with my husband him has made me smarter, if not in a bookish sense then at least in a way that makes me less likely to be one of the first to die in a horror movie. Every other day, he’d train me on different things, all of it geared to ensure I come out of any emergency alive, and that’s why…

I can’t be mistaken.

The security in this club?

Not normal.

I mean, sure, its members are wealthy and all, but the security here makes my workplace seem more like Fort Knox than a membership-only golf course. It reminds me so much of Chadwick and the other guys charged with keeping the yacht safe, and⁠—

“Good evening, Mr. de Laigny.”

“Welcome back, sir.”

“Good evening, sir.”

Everyone around me straightens up like soldiers seeing their commander approaching, and so I automatically do the same when I see a tall, black-haired man about to walk past me.

“Good evening…sir?”

My voice falters when he comes to a stop in front of me.

“Karyna…Francisco, isn’t it?”

I nod hesitantly.

“Has my wife shown you around?”

“Um—” Will I get into trouble if I admit to not knowing who his wife is?

“Cadence,” he murmurs.

My eyes widen when I realize what he’s saying. This man is handsome and all, but he’s also rather intimidating and dangerous-looking, and it’s just so hard to imagine him married to someone like Cadence⁠—

Oh.

Okay.

That’s when it hits me.

Keiran de Laigny being friends with him…

The security here reminding me of Chadwick and the other guys…

And last but not the least, Cadence saying they only hire people they can trust…

It all makes sense now.

This place.

Harbour Locke Country Club.