Chapter 4 - The Note Left Behind|
Ellie clapped her hands together, delighted by the sweet music filling the quiet room.
"Yay!" the baby cooed, reaching for the spinning brass cylinder inside the open box.
Then, with a faint metallic snap, the tiny tune stopped dead in the middle of a stanza.
Hannah dropped to her knees on the rug, her chest seizing with sheer terror. "No. No, no, no..."
She picked up the box with trembling hands. The intricate brass hinge on the left side had cracked clean through. A small, delicate steel spring lay loose against the velvet lining.
Hannah looked wildly toward the empty hallway. Her eyes swept the dark corridor, searching for any sign of a security guard or a supervisor. It was completely silent. No one had walked past. The box had clearly sat tucked away on that bottom shelf behind heavy binders for years, untouched and forgotten.
A dark, desperate thought crossed her mind. She could put it back. She could slide it onto the bottom shelf, turn the broken hinge toward the back wall, and slip out of the building. Nobody would know it was broken tonight. It might sit there for months before anyone ever noticed.
Hannah stared at the broken mechanism, then looked down at her daughter. Ellie was watching her with big, innocent brown eyes.
Hannah let out a long, shuddering breath. "Great. You're already judging me, aren't you, Peanut?"
She wiped a tear from her cheek, reached onto her cleaning cart, and pulled out an official yellow maintenance clipboard. With a pen that leaked black ink onto her thumb, she began to write in careful, desperate script:
Mr. Whitmore,
My daughter accidentally pulled this music box from the bottom shelf while I was cleaning your office tonight. The hinge snapped and the internal spring came loose. I am entirely responsible for this damage. I know I am not supposed to have my child here. Please do not fire Marlene. I will pay for the full repair cost in installments out of my paycheck, or I can take it to a repair shop myself. I am so deeply sorry.
Hannah Mercer, Night Cleaning Crew
Underneath her signature, she wrote her personal cell phone number, her employee ID, and pressing her lips together, she set the note and the broken music box directly in the center of Ethan’s pristine glass desk.
Across the hall, Ethan stared through the glass at the yellow paper resting under his desk lamp. She thought she was completely alone. She thought no one was watching.
May you like
She could have hidden her mistake and walked away. Instead, she had handed him the evidence that would cost her livelihood.
Then, from the stroller, Ellie let out a wet, raspy cough.
