Chapter 2 - THE RULE WITH NO PUNISHMENTAt 9:17 a.m., Mara found the triplets hiding beneath the twelve-foot dining table.
She sat on the floor instead of ordering them out.
That immediately made them suspicious.
The boys were identical enough that Mara initially couldn’t tell them apart, but their personalities separated them quickly.
Eli watched everything.
Noah talked constantly when nervous.
And Caleb—the smallest by perhaps half an inch—barely spoke.
Eli appeared to be the strategist.
“So?” he said from beneath the table. “You gonna punish us?”
Mara leaned against a chair.
“For what?”
“The pudding.”
“Did you throw pudding?”
All three exchanged confused looks.
Noah pointed at Eli.
“He did.”
Eli punched him.
“Ow!”
“You said we wouldn’t tell!”
Mara nodded thoughtfully.
“So Eli threw it.”
“No!” Eli shouted.
“You just punched your brother for identifying you.”
“That doesn’t prove anything.”
“Future lawyer.”
Eli frowned.
He didn’t understand whether he had been insulted.
Mara stood.
“I’m changing my shirt.”
Caleb finally spoke.
“You’re not telling Dad?”
“No.”
Eli crawled halfway out.
“Why?”
“Because your father already knows you throw things at nannies.”
That stopped him.
Mara continued.
“What he apparently doesn’t know is why.”
Silence.
Three faces changed simultaneously.
It lasted perhaps one second.
Fear.
Then it vanished.
Eli scoffed.
“We do it because it’s funny.”
“Maybe.”
Mara left them there.
She had brought two changes of clothing because she wasn’t completely naïve.
Twenty minutes later she returned wearing jeans and a dark green sweater.
Adrian was waiting in the kitchen.
“You should have called me.”
“For pudding?”
“They assaulted you.”
“They’re six.”
“They know better.”
Mara opened the refrigerator.
“You have enough food in here to feed my entire apartment building.”
Adrian stared at her.
“Mara.”
She turned.
“You hired me because everything you’ve tried failed. Correct?”
His jaw tightened.
“Yes.”
“Then maybe stop doing the same thing.”
Adrian wasn’t accustomed to being spoken to that way.
She could tell.
Probably nobody inside his companies told him he was wrong unless they enjoyed unemployment.
But he had twenty billion reasons to intimidate people.
Mara had twenty thousand reasons not to care.
“What do you suggest?”
“One rule.”
“One?”
“For today.”
“Which is?”
“Nobody gets hurt.”
Adrian stared.
“That’s your entire strategy?”
“For the next few hours.”
“They’ll destroy the house.”
“It’s your house.”
A strange noise escaped Helen.
Possibly a laugh she disguised as a cough.
Adrian’s eyes narrowed.
“Anything else?”
“Yes. Nobody threatens them.”
“I don’t threaten my sons.”
“Good. Then that’ll be easy.”
Mara walked out.
The triplets were waiting around the corner.
Obviously eavesdropping.
Noah stepped into her path.
“We heard you.”
“Congratulations.”
“Dad could buy a thousand houses.”
“Probably.”
“So we can break stuff?”
“You can.”
Three smiles appeared.
“But.”
They groaned.
“If you break something, you clean it up.”
“That’s punishment,” Eli argued.
“No. That’s physics.”
“What?”
“You make a mess. The mess exists. Someone has to fix it.”
Eli considered this.
“So Helen can.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because Helen didn’t make it.”
Noah crossed his arms.
“We won’t.”
“Okay.”
That answer irritated them more than arguing would have.
They vanished.
Five minutes later, Mara heard glass shatter.
She entered the sunroom.
An antique vase lay in pieces.
The boys waited.
Mara looked at the vase.
Then at them.
“Broom?”
Noah pointed toward the pantry.
She brought it.
Eli smiled triumphantly.
“You’re cleaning it.”
“No.”
She handed him the broom.
He dropped it.
Mara sat on the sofa.
And waited.
Ten minutes passed.
Twenty.
The boys became bored before she did.
Caleb eventually picked up the broom.
Eli hissed, “Don’t!”
“I wanna play.”
“We’re not cleaning.”
Caleb swept one piece.
Noah joined him.
Within six minutes the room was clean.
Mara said nothing.
Eli looked furious.
“You cheated.”
“How?”
“You waited.”
“Yes.”
“You’re supposed to yell.”
“Why?”
“All nannies yell.”
Mara studied him.
“Do they?”
He realized too late that he had revealed something.
His gaze hardened.
“They hate us.”
“I don’t.”
“You will.”
Mara crouched to his height.
“That sounds like a challenge.”
“It is.”
“Then you should know something about me.”
“What?”
“I’m extremely stubborn.”
Eli smiled.
“So are we.”
For the first time, Mara smiled back.
“Good.”
From the doorway, Adrian watched them.
He had not intended to.
He was supposed to leave for Manhattan.
Three meetings waited.
A board call.
A contract negotiation worth sixty million dollars.
Instead, he stood unnoticed outside the sunroom watching the woman he had expected to quit before lunch.
His sons weren’t screaming.
They weren’t fighting.
They weren’t hiding.
They were cleaning.
That should have pleased him.
Instead, he felt something colder.
Confusion.
Because for eighteen months, specialists had told him increasingly frightening things.
Oppositional behavior.
Aggression.
Trauma.
Attachment disturbance.
Possible conduct disorder.
And yet Mara Bennett had accomplished something in ninety minutes that several expensive therapists and nannies had failed to achieve.
She had made them cooperate.
Not because they feared her.
Because she didn’t fear them.
At noon, Adrian canceled his second meeting.
At twelve fifteen, the triplets escalated.
They filled Mara’s shoes with shaving cream.
She rinsed them.
They hid her phone inside a flour container.
She found it.
They switched sugar for salt when she made coffee.
She took one sip, looked directly at Eli and said:
“Interesting.”
Then she finished the cup.
Noah nearly fell off his chair laughing.
By three o’clock, the attacks became less creative.
By four, they were exhausted.
Mara took them outside.
The estate contained acres of manicured lawn but almost no evidence that children lived there.
No swing set.
No bicycles.
No muddy soccer balls.
Only an enormous heated pool surrounded by pale stone.
Noah stopped near the edge.
His entire body changed.
Mara noticed.
His shoulders stiffened.
His breathing shortened.
“Want to swim?” she asked.
“No.”
Eli answered quickly.
“We hate swimming.”
Caleb stared at the water.
Mara saw his hand slip into Eli’s.
Interesting.
“Okay.”
They turned away.
Then a man’s voice sounded behind them.
“I thought I heard shouting.”
All three boys froze.
Not dramatically.
Instantly.
Mara turned.
A handsome man in his early forties approached from the house.
Designer clothes.
Easy smile.
Expensive watch.
He looked enough like Adrian to be family.
“Hello,” he said. “You must be the latest victim.”
Mara didn’t smile.
“And you are?”
“Victor Blackwood. Adrian’s brother.”
He extended his hand.
Before Mara could take it, Caleb moved behind her.
Victor noticed.
His smile never changed.
“How have my favorite little psychopaths been treating you?”
Mara looked down.
Eli’s face had emptied completely.
Noah stared at the grass.
Caleb gripped the back of Mara’s sweater.
Victor laughed.
“Relax. It’s our little joke.”
Mara didn’t laugh.
“You call six-year-olds psychopaths?”
“They’ve earned worse.”
He walked toward Caleb.
Caleb backed away.
Victor stopped.
Something passed between them.
Something Mara couldn’t name.
Then Victor turned toward her.
“You seem tougher than the others.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“You shouldn’t.”
His smile sharpened.
“These boys know how to find whatever hurts you most.”
He leaned slightly closer.
“Eventually, they always do.”
Then he walked away.
Mara watched him enter the house.
When she turned back, all three boys were staring at her.
“What?” she asked.
No answer.
Then Caleb whispered:
“Are you staying tonight?”
“Yes.”
“Promise?”
Mara hesitated.
Promises mattered.
Especially to children.
“Yes.”
Caleb swallowed.
“Even if something bad happens?”
Mara crouched.
“What bad thing?”
His brothers immediately moved toward him.
Eli grabbed Caleb’s arm.
“Nothing.”
Caleb looked frightened.
Mara glanced from one boy to another.
Then toward the door Victor had disappeared through.
For the first time since entering Blackwood Manor, Mara stopped wondering why the boys kept attacking nannies.
May you like
A much darker question replaced it.
What were they trying to make the nannies escape from?
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