Chapter 1
The first sound that warned me was not Leo crying.
It was the sharp hiss of steam.
I was in the kitchen polishing silver spoons for Victoria’s engagement dinner when I heard it through the open doorway.
Hiss.
Then Leo coughed.
Once.
Twice.
Then he screamed.
Every part of me froze.
I had cared for that baby for six months, and I knew his cries the way other people knew songs.
That was not hunger.
That was not boredom.
That was fear.
I dropped the polishing cloth and ran.
The drawing room was bright with afternoon sun, too beautiful for what I saw inside it.
Leo lay in his crib near the fireplace, red-faced and coughing, his tiny fists jerking in the air.
Victoria stood over him with a heavy iron in her hand.
Her thumb was on the steam button.
Hiss.
A white cloud drifted down toward the crib.
“Stop crying,” she whispered.
My heart slammed against my ribs.
“What are you doing?”
Victoria jerked back.
For one second, the mask slipped from her face.
Then she lowered the iron and smiled.
“I’m removing a wrinkle from my scarf.”
I looked across the room.
Her silk scarf was draped over the back of a chair, nowhere near the crib.
“Your scarf is over there.”
Her eyes hardened.
I pushed past her and lifted Leo into my arms.
He clung to the front of my black uniform, coughing into my shoulder.
His little body was hot.
Too hot.
“It was steam,” I whispered. “You were pressing steam into his crib.”
Victoria stepped closer.
“Give him to me.”
“No.”
Her smile disappeared.
“You forget who you are.”
“I know exactly who I am.”
“You’re only the maid.”
“And he’s a helpless baby.”
She grabbed my arm.
Her nails dug into my skin as she tried to pull Leo away.
I turned my whole body, shielding him against my chest.
Leo screamed harder.
“Touch him again,” I said, “and I’ll scream for Mr. Ethan.”
Victoria laughed softly.
“Who do you think he’ll believe?”
The question hit the place she always aimed for.
I was Sarah Miller.
Thirty-one years old.
Hired help.
A woman with two gray uniforms, one pair of church shoes, and a sick mother in Savannah who depended on my paycheck.
Victoria was Ethan Blackwood’s fiancée.
Beautiful.
Educated.
Rich.
The woman society pages had already called the perfect future mother to his son.
But Leo’s fingers were shaking against my collar.
That made me brave.
Footsteps sounded in the hallway.
Ethan walked in with his tie loosened, phone in hand, and stopped.
His eyes moved from the iron on the table to Leo sobbing in my arms.
Then to Victoria.
“What is going on?”
Victoria dropped the iron so fast it thudded against the rug.
Then she burst into tears.
“Ethan, she attacked me.”
I stared at her.
“She was holding that iron over Leo’s crib.”
Victoria gasped.
“That is a disgusting lie.”
Ethan’s face tightened.
He looked at Leo.
Leo buried his face in my neck and cried.
“Sarah,” Ethan said slowly, “tell me exactly what happened.”
“I heard him coughing,” I said. “I came in and saw her leaning over the crib, pressing the steam button.”
Victoria wiped her face.
“I was ironing my scarf.”
“Across the room?” I asked.
Her eyes flashed.
“She has always been possessive with him.”
Ethan looked at me.
That hurt, even before he spoke.
Because for a second, I saw doubt.
Not much.
But enough.
Victoria saw it too.
“She wants him to need her,” she said. “She wants to make me look dangerous because she’s jealous.”
I held Leo tighter.
“I’m not jealous of you.”
“No,” she said. “You’re desperate to matter.”
The room went quiet.
Then I noticed it.
A tiny green light above the fireplace.
The baby monitor camera.
Ethan had installed it after Leo’s last nanny quit without notice.
Victoria followed my gaze.
Her face drained.
Ethan turned.
He saw the light.
Then he reached for his phone.
“Ethan,” Victoria whispered.
He didn’t answer.
“Please don’t look at that.”
His thumb stopped.
Slowly, he looked up at her.
“Why?”
She swallowed.
“I don’t want you feeding into her drama.”
Ethan opened the monitor app.
The room was silent except for Leo’s broken little breaths.
The video loaded.
There was Victoria, walking into the drawing room with the iron.
There was Leo sleeping.
There was her lowering the iron near the crib.
There was the steam.
Again.
Again.
Again.
Ethan’s face went white.
Victoria backed away.
“It wasn’t like that.”
Ethan didn’t blink.
“You brought harm near my son.”
“It was an accident.”
“You pressed the button three times.”
“He cries whenever I touch him,” she snapped. “He ruins everything.”
The words hung in the air.
Her hand flew to her mouth, but it was too late.
Ethan looked at her as if he had never seen her before.
I whispered, “He needs a doctor.”
That broke him out of it.
He took one step toward me.
Leo whimpered and clung harder.
Ethan stopped, pain flashing across his face.
“Sarah,” he said quietly, “keep holding him.”
Victoria’s mouth tightened.
“Ethan, you cannot be serious.”
He picked up the iron by the cord and set it on the mantel like evidence.
Then he pulled out his phone again.
“I’m calling Dr. Reeves. Then I’m calling the police.”
Victoria’s eyes widened.
“The police?”
“You think I’m letting this disappear?”
She turned toward me.
“You little snake.”
Ethan stepped between us.
“Do not speak to her.”
Victoria laughed, but it broke in the middle.
“You’re choosing a maid over your future wife?”
Ethan’s voice turned cold.
“I’m choosing my son.”
She grabbed her purse from the chair.
“You’ll regret humiliating me.”
As she passed me, she leaned close enough that Ethan couldn’t hear.
“His mother didn’t protect him either.”
My blood went cold.
Leo coughed again.
Ethan turned back.
“What did she say?”
Victoria had already reached the door.
May you like
I looked down at Leo, then at the camera above the fireplace.
For the first time, I wondered if it had recorded more than today.
