“I am.”
Claire looked from one man to the other. “Don’t I get a say?”
Dante’s gaze returned to her. “Do you want the job?”
She thought of the eviction notice. Rosie’s lunch account. The Dunkin’ coffee gone cold in her hands. Her cracked phone glowing with $11.43.
Then she looked at the three boys.
They were not monsters.
They were landmines someone had abandoned in a beautiful room.
“Yes,” she said. “But I have conditions.”
Dante’s eyebrows lifted slightly.
The boys leaned forward.
Claire pointed at the ruined wall city. “First, nobody touches their map unless they say so.”
Nico’s eyes widened.
“Second, I get Sundays with my daughter.”
Dante nodded once.
“Third, if one of your staff treats me like furniture, I leave.”
“You won’t.”
“I said if.”
“You won’t,” Dante repeated, and this time his voice carried something darker.
Claire did not know yet whether it was a promise or a threat.
“And fourth,” she said, “I don’t work for ghosts. If there’s something in this house that makes three boys draw a monster tower on the wall, I need to know before it starts chasing me too.”
Dante’s face turned to stone.
Behind him, Luca whispered, “She sees it.”
Dante heard him.
So did Claire.
For one suspended second, the entire mansion seemed to hold its breath.
Then Dante Rinaldi said quietly, “Welcome to my home, Ms. Beaumont.”
But he said it like a warning.
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And Claire, who had walked in with eleven dollars, no savings, and nothing left to lose, smiled at the triplets.
“All right, boys,” she said. “Who wants to name a city?”