Too Late, Mr. Winters: I'm No Victim

The Winters estate in the Hamptons was a fortress of glass and steel perched on a cliff edge. The waves crashed violently below.

The butler didn't take Arla to the main house. He led her to the greenhouse.

It was humid inside, smelling of damp earth and fertilizer.

Rose Winters was standing by a bush of black roses, holding a pair of sharp shears.

"Your Uber was slow," Rose said without turning.

"It was cheap," Arla replied.

Rose turned. She held out the shears. "Cut the dead ones."

Arla took the tool. She moved to the bush. Snip. Snip. Her movements were precise. She knew anatomy. Plants weren't so different.

"I saw your file," Rose said. "Not the one Victoria sent. The real one."

Arla froze. The shears hovered over a stem. Her heart hammered a warning rhythm.

"The one from the group home. The one that shows four different foster families in five years. The one that ends the day you turned eighteen and vanished."

Arla exhaled. Rose only had the surface layer. She didn't know about The Auditor.

"I was a kid," Arla said. "I survived."

"I don't care about your past," Rose said. She cut a rose head off with a violent snap. "I care about your brain."

She looked at Arla. "Claudine is an idiot. Victoria is a leech. If this marriage proceeds as they've planned it, the Fitzgeralds will bleed us dry. They are parasites."

"Why agree to the marriage then?"

"Ellery needs the merger to stabilize the board. He needs the assets. He doesn't need the family attached to them."

Rose stepped closer. Her eyes were hard. "I want you to sabotage the wedding. But save the merger."

Arla stared at the old woman. "You want me to be the villain?"

"You already are," Rose said. "You hate them. And you're smart."

"What do I get?"

Rose reached into her apron pocket. She pulled out a heavy, brass key.

"Access," Rose said. "Be my 'Honorary Ward.' In this house, under that title, you are untouchable. No one can kick you out. Not even Ellery."

Arla looked at the key. It was a pass to the inner sanctum. A way to get close to Ellery's servers.

"Deal," Arla said. "One condition."

"Name it."

"I want the room next to Ellery's."

Rose smiled. It was a terrifying expression. "Done."

They shook hands.

The greenhouse door opened. Silas walked in, pushing Ellery's wheelchair. He stopped. He saw his grandmother and his boss's fiancée shaking hands over a pile of severed rose heads.

Ellery's head was still tilted, his expression vacant, but a chill that had nothing to do with the damp air went down his spine.