Juliet returned home early from her errands in a lighthearted mood. The meeting with the Clover Club had gone well. They’d gained another ally in their good fight. Hopefully Kim Corelyn would prove to be an invaluable asset! Stella had done a great job vetting the Core and networking, they had all the numbers they needed to start reaching out. Now it was a matter of figuring out who they should call first. Suggestions thrown out and shot down; there were rumors of Ezra being a bit crotchety and the child artist was far too young, an opinion Juliet agreed with. It seemed as if the best bet would be the French girl—but Gwyndoline claimed with all the surety and none of the evidence to back up her claim that all seers wore like a uniform—that the Japanese woman was who they should contact first. What had her name been again? Juliet couldn’t recall, only that she was holed up in some psyche ward. Though Juliet was not privy as to why and these combined facts left her uneasy. The woman shook her head to clear it. Being back home meant she had other duties to see too, instead of worrying over things she couldn’t control.

She was sure that Mabry would still have some time to see her friends and Juliet would be able to distract Aiva with a new puzzle. Finding offscreen endeavors to occupy a preteen was the one chore that Juliet enjoyed above all others, so much due to her own upbringing. As she opened the kitchen door two workers maneuvered past her and began grabbing more bags.

“Thanks so much, but I can manage.” Juliet’s smile was an easy one, settled across her features as if belonged there.

Rebecca laughed from her position over the stove. “Don’t worry about it, they need something to do.”

“Really, my daughter should be helping me. Where is that girl?”

The head cook opened her mouth but paused before she replied. After a moment she chortled. “You know, I’m not too sure. Haven’t seen her.”

Juliet sighed and left the rest of the unpacking to the kitchen staff. She discarded the thought that it was strange for Mabry to avoid the kitchen for even a full hour with how much the girl was growing; every half hour she was wanting a snack of some sort. When Juliet opened the door to her apartment though she was struck by the silence that met her.

“Aiva? Mab?”

There was no reply but she knew her daughter’s mischievous nature. With not a small amount of caution she moved through the living area, checked behind every piece of well-worn furniture and even under a few.

“If you girls scare me, I’m going to ground you both!” She poked her head into her daughters room only to tut at the mess within and move on.

When she could not find them, she headed to Aiva’s room. They hardly hung out in there though. In fact, Juliet could not recall a time when they had. She was right, her ward’s bedroom presented a picturesque, but empty shell. Her forehead wrinkled in a frown; maybe they had gone outside despite the heat.

She hoped that Mabry wasn’t letting Aiva walk around; she didn’t agree with how the Corelyn’s raised their daughter but she wasn’t there to argue. She wasn’t even there for the very sizable paycheck. The woman turned towards the nearest exit with a crisper step.

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Half an hour later, a sheen of sweat dappled her skin as she lugged back up to the house and into the kitchen. A suspicion grew in the back of her thoughts.

“Rebecca?”

The cook turned from her task.

“Are you sure you haven’t seen the kids around at all.”

The woman shook her head, “I assumed they were doing girl stuff in Mab’s room.” There was a question in her eyes that Juliet waved off, her impatience growing. “Maybe you could call one of them to see where in the house they’ve gotten too. Lord knows it’s big enough to get lost in if they went exploring.”

Juliet shook her head, “Aiva doesn’t have a phone, the Corelyn’s never saw why she would need one.” Understanding and mutual frustration at their employers passed between them with a look. “And Mabry breaks every dang cell I get her.”

With a fleeting glance at the clock she went in search of a Richard. Time was ticking away. She wouldn’t be able to hunt through the entire estate by herself.

The Richard wasn’t hard to find, large lumbering creatures that they were, and working about as predictable as clockwork. She relayed what little she knew; that their charge was missing, along with her daughter, that she’d last seen them in the garden room, and that she’d already completed a perusing search. However Juliet left out the inkling that she had about where they had gotten too. No need to raise those particular alarms yet.

As Juliet and the Richard spun away from each other, each seeking a different end of the mansion, the phone she’d been clutching and checking every few moments vibrated. She almost jumped clear out of her skin, dropping her cell in the process of answering it.

What?” She snapped into the receiver, before correcting her tone at the very least. “I’m sorry Stella. What do you need? I just left there a few hours ago. There couldn’t possibly be any new information.”

“Wow, someone’s a tad grumpy aren’t they?”

Juliet grunted, not wishing to explain to the other woman what was going on. At least not yet, not if she didn’t have too.

“I was establishing a safe line through this phone. You downgraded to a flip phone like I said right? Low tech is much easier to secure and integrate with these sort of spells.”

“OF course I did. I never upgraded in the first place, if you wanna worry about someone with high-tech stuff worry ‘bout the young’uns.” Juliet turned a corner, into the main hallway, and saw the double front doors begin to open. “Shit. I’ve gotta let you go.” She sent up a prayer that this was not Mrs. Corelyn, that the woman was still out shopping or otherwise socializing.

“Before ya go Gwyn says—”

Juliet never found out what the Seer had to say, she’d snapped the phone closed, hitching up her most amiable of looks as the very woman she did not wish to see right now stepped through the doors, she scrambled for something, anything she could say to avoid sounding too austere when she explained this whole fiasco to her employer. There could be margin for error, she had to spin this right. This job meant more to her than a place to sleep and a paycheck. Maybe if Mrs. Corelyn saw that she wasn’t that worried about the girls? No. Aiva had existed in this bubble for too long, that approach wouldn’t work. Multiple different scripts popped into her head only to be judged and discarded, all within the span of a few seconds as Susan walked towards her, ever present Smile wide and disconcerting. Designer heals muted against the Persian rug. Juliet’s breath caught in her throat as the other woman neared, and then passed in a perfumed breeze of nonchalance.

Susan hadn’t paused for even the briefest of moments to ask about her daughter, had not taken a second out of her pseudo busy schedule to inquire on Aiva’s schooling, or health, or hobbies. The next bruncheon with the gals and what she would wear out was much more important to the woman than her own flesh and blood.

Juliet snapped.

Caution thrown to the wind the woman spun, dark curling locks so much like her daughters flying in the air. Damn the consequences!

“Mrs. Corelyn, Aiva is missing.”