Nathaniel met the butler, Barry, who had recently been taking care of Melanie. "I'm going to get someone to replace you at your job of taking care of Melanie, when she comes show her the ropes,"
"Yes Sir,"
"I will not come back here today, and maybe for a few days. Till then, it's you and the housekeeper that is in charge. Keep Melanie out of trouble," Nathaniel instructed the butler before he left.
Melanie overheard their conversation. It was very early in the morning, but she was already awake. She felt a bit disappointed. She had planned to show her 'invention' to her dad this morning, and he just decided to leave quietly without breathing a word to her.
She'll make him regret it alright. Melanie had this sinister look in her eyes as she came up with a plan.
---
"So you're leaving? But you just started working here 3 days ago!" Skylar half screamed
"I know, it's that soon," Riley answered dejectedly, indeed she was going to miss Skylar.
"Where are you going to work now?"
"In a mansion, as a maid,"
"Is it the Marcello's mansion? The one with the huge pay,"
"Yes, that one,"
"Are you crazy girl? Forget the money, no one goes there and comes out the same. Haven't you seen their site? It's only bad reviews for a reason,"
"I guessed, but it can't be that bad,"
"That's what you think, until you get there," Skylar paused "Let me have your number, just in case you need your job back,"
Skylar didn't want to admit it, but three days with Riley, and she became attached to her. It's hard to see that kind of friendship bloom. She had a feeling that they were going to be good friends. Too bad Riley spoiled it with her 'I'm getting a new job' show.
Skylar hadn't had good friends for a long while. Actually, her only friend was her mother. Her colleagues were just colleagues to her. She hadn't yet found someone who she could lean on for help and support, someone who matched her energy and did not categorize her thoughts as crazy. Riley came and she saw hope, now she's… gone.
"I'll make sure to keep in touch," Riley said and opened her arms for a hug. 5 seconds passed and Skylar didn't move, she felt embarrassed and proceeded to put her hands down when Skylar swooped in and gave her a big hug.
"Take care," She whispered
---
Riley wondered why such a location –Princeton village– was chosen for the interview. Couldn't they have done it in his mansion? And that wasn't the weirdest part, it was in a graveyard. The graveyard didn't even exist on google map!
She tried to shift her thoughts from any 'what if' wrong thoughts popping in her head. She'll just trust her instinct, and see where this goes.
---
Riley easily located the graveyard once she got to Princeton village. Turns out it was a very popular place in that community. She spotted some people standing outside the walls of the graveyard. Assuming that they were there for the same reason, she joined them.
"Hello," She gave a small smile to the woman beside her.
"Hello, are you also here for the interview?" The woman asked.
Riley nodded, she was now sure that she was in the right place.
"Aren't we supposed to go inside the graveyard?" Riley cluelessly said.
The woman gave a small laugh, "How could someone conduct an interview in a graveyard? We're waiting for the bus,"
"The bus?"
"Yes, a bus would be sent to carry us to the interview Venue,"
"How do you know all this?"
"I have a relative working there. I'm going to work there as part of the chefs, and you?"
"A maid,"
The woman looked at her, wide eyed. "You've got a lot of guts,"
Everyone kept saying something similar to her anytime she told them of her job. "Why? If I may ask,"
"You've not heard of Mr Nathaniel's daughter?"
"He has a daughter?"
The woman just shook her head and sighed, "You don't know what you're in for,"
---
The bus finally came, after 30 minutes of waiting, and everyone entered in. Riley tried making her research on Mr Marcello's daughter. There was nothing, just some fake news here and there. She turned to ask the man beside her if he knew anything. "Mr Marcello's daughter? I've heard from friends who worked there that she's crazy. I've never seen her before,"
Riley now realised 'No wonder the job had a very high pay, she was to take care of his daughter and not him'
---
Mrs Miller handed the research paper Riley gave her to some patrol officers. Miss Knox was right, this was good news. Just only today, she had received countless commendations and promised promotions from just showing her superiors a piece of paper.
If she succeeds in finding who this EG really is, of course she'll take all the credit. She was the one really doing all the work here.
"Riley is so, so naïve," Mrs Miller murmured to herself. Riley had trusted her blindly. She didn't know how to play the 'chess' and trusted whatever she said even though she was her opponent!
When Riley had asked about the undercover team yesterday, she thought that the girl had grown a brain, but she was convinced she hadn't when she said no and Riley didn't persist. She had expected her to say something like 'It's my right!' but nothing of such was said.
"Silly Miss Knox"
Before Riley would come back from the mission and find out all about her plans, she would have disappeared from this state. You see, she had it all planned out from the beginning. Riley had always gotten on her nerves with her 'positive attitude', 'thoughtful gestures' and ceaseless promotions. She had a feeling Riley was playing goody two shoes to score another promotion. No year passes by without Riley getting a promotion, and it angered her. When she was Riley's age, she was working as an intern in some cyber-café, not bagging promotions that were meant for her bosses!
Anyways, when D.S. Henderson informed her about this mission, she saw this as a perfect opportunity to bring down an opportunist…Riley! It took nights of less sleep and a lot of planning to perfect her plan, but she did it. Now it was in motion. It would be so satisfying to watch. Especially since she was to play the role of Riley's mother in this mission. She was so smart that she didn't even give Riley an undercover name. If the mission was over and someone from EG remains alive and uncaught, they can easily track her down and destroy her.
It's called killing two birds with one stone.