Chapter 1
Ethan was crying when I found him.
Not the tired little whimper he made when he missed his nap.
This was panic.
The kind that made his tiny shoulders shake.
I found him curled beside the nursery dresser, one sock missing, his cheeks wet, his little fists reaching toward me the second I stepped through the door.
“Lily,” he sobbed in his baby voice.
I ran to him.
Before I could even ask what happened, he wrapped both arms around my neck and clung like I was the only solid thing left in the world.
Then Serena stepped out from behind the open closet door.
Victor’s fiancée looked perfect, as always.
Smooth hair.
Soft smile.
Cold eyes.
“You have no right to pick him up,” she said.
“He’s scared.”
“He’s spoiled.”
Ethan buried his face against my collar and cried harder.
I tightened my arms around him.
“I’m taking him downstairs.”
Serena blocked the doorway.
“No, you’re not.”
My heart started beating too fast.
For weeks, I had noticed things.
Ethan crying whenever Serena entered the nursery.
Tiny bruises she explained away as “toddler clumsiness.”
The way she insisted I take breaks exactly when Victor was gone.
The way she locked the nursery door and told me, “A nanny doesn’t question the woman of the house.”
But I had questioned.
Quietly.
Carefully.
And that was why she hated me.
“Move,” I said.
Her face changed.
“You’re forgetting your place.”
Then she kicked me.
Pain shot through my side.
I fell hard onto the rug, but I twisted my body so Ethan landed on my chest instead of the floor.
He screamed.
I wrapped myself around him.
Serena crouched beside me.
“You stupid girl,” she whispered. “Victor will believe me over you.”
I could barely breathe.
But I did not let go.
“He’s a baby,” I said.
“He is a fortune,” Serena snapped.
The words were out before she could catch them.
I stared at her.
“What did you say?”
She grabbed Ethan’s arm.
I pulled him back.
“Don’t touch him.”
Her nails dug into my wrist.
“You are nobody, Lily. A paid servant. A replaceable little girl with no family, no money, and no power.”
Then a voice came from the doorway.
“Believe you about what?”
Serena froze.
I turned my head.
Victor Hale stood there in his black suit, briefcase still in hand, his face drained of every bit of color.
Serena stood quickly.
“Victor, thank God. She attacked me.”
Ethan reached one tiny hand toward him.
“Daddy.”
Victor looked at his son.
Then at me on the floor, still curled around Ethan.
Then at Serena.
“What happened?”
Serena opened her mouth.
I looked at Victor and realized I had one chance.
Maybe the only one I would ever get.
“She hurt him,” I said. “And I think she’s been hurting him for weeks.”
Serena laughed.
But Victor did not.
He looked down at Ethan’s trembling hands.
May you like
Then Ethan whispered, “No Serena.”
The room went silent.
