His Mother Worked the Maid Until She Collapsed, but the Billionaire Came Home Early and Chose Her in Front of Everyone

She stared up at the acoustic-tiled ceiling for a long moment, disoriented and cold. Her wrists felt strangely light. As she tried to move her arm, a sharp prick of pain in the back of her left hand made her hiss. An IV line was taped to her skin, connected to a clear bag of saline hanging from a metal pole beside the cot.

"Ah. Awakening from your theatrical nap, are you?"

Lily turned her head slowly. Elizabeth Blackwell was sitting in a high-backed leather armchair in the corner of the room, her legs crossed, sipping a cup of chamomile tea with an expression of supreme, icy disgust.

Lily tried to sit up, but her head spun violently. "What... what happened?"

"You collapsed," Elizabeth said, not bothering to look at her. "Right in the middle of Mrs. Vanderbuilt’s presentation on colonial landscape design. It was profoundly embarrassing, Carter. Do you have any idea how it looks to my peers when the hired help throws a fainting fit on the Persian rug?"

Lily swallowed, her throat feeling like sandpaper. "I... I worked through the night, Mrs. Blackwell. I haven't slept properly in days."

"Do not make excuses to me," Elizabeth snapped, setting her teacup down with a sharp click. "Everyone in this house works. Mrs. Brooks is twice your age, and she manages a staff of ten without collapsing like a Victorian damsel in distress. You were hired to perform a specific function. If your constitution cannot handle standard domestic labor, then perhaps you lied about your capabilities to my son."

Lily’s blood, sluggish a moment ago, suddenly surged with hot, furious adrenaline. She ripped the tape of the IV needle off the back of her hand, ignoring the small bead of blood that welled up, and swung her legs over the side of the cot.

"I didn't lie about anything," Lily said, her voice shaking with rage as she stood up. The room swayed, but she forced herself to stand tall, gripping the edge of the medical cart. "And I am not your slave, Mrs. Blackwell. I work twelve to fourteen hours a day, executing an impossible schedule designed to break me, and you haven't had a single word of human decency to say to me since you walked through that front door."

Elizabeth stood up, her eyes narrowing into cold slits. She walked over until she was standing inches from Lily, towering over her with aristocratic fury.

"How dare you raise your voice in my house," Elizabeth hissed. "You are an employee. An appendage. A person of zero consequence who caught the temporary, foolish fancy of my son because he has been isolated in corporate towers for too long. Do you genuinely believe a Blackwell marries a girl from a dead-end town with a teenage brother in tow? Ethan was playing a game, Carter. And you were foolish enough to fall in love with your employer."

The words hit Lily like a physical blow, right where her bruises already ached.

Before she could form a reply, the door to the medical room flew open.

Jaden stood in the doorway, his chest heaving, his face flushed with panic. He had run all the way from the guest cottage where he and Lily stayed.

"Lily!" Jaden cried out, rushing past Elizabeth as if she were a ghost. He grabbed Lily’s arm, his eyes wide. "Are you okay? Mrs. Brooks told me you passed out—they said an ambulance almost came—"

"I'm fine, Jaden," Lily whispered, her voice cracking as the emotional dam finally threatened to break.

Elizabeth stared at Jaden with unconcealed contempt. "Get this boy out of my medical suite immediately. And as for you, Carter, take the rest of the day off. But do not mistake my mercy for weakness. Tomorrow morning at five o'clock, the schedule resumes. If you are a minute late, you will find your belongings on the front lawn."

Elizabeth turned on her heel and swept out of the room, her silk skirt swishing with lethal precision.

Jaden looked up at Lily, tears of anger glistening in his eyes. "We have to leave, Lily. Right now. Pack our bags. I don't care about Ethan, I don't care about his money, and I don't care about this creepy house. She’s destroying you."

Lily looked down at her younger brother. She thought of Jaden’s upcoming college applications, of the medical insurance Ethan had quietly set up for them both, and of the way Ethan had looked at her on the front steps just two weeks ago.

“You're my home, Lily.”