Chapter 2 - The Housekeeper’s SecretDownstairs, in the cavernous, stainless-steel kitchen, Grace Carter was shaking so violently that she couldn't pour a glass of water for Lily. The little girl sat on a stool, swinging her legs, blissfully unaware that she had just derailed a multimillion-dollar peace treaty.
"Mommy, are we in trouble?" Lily asked, her blue eyes wide.
"No, baby," Grace said, though her heart was hammering against her ribs like a trapped bird. "We’re just... we're just working."
Grace had been at Hawthorne for three years. She kept her head down, she polished the silver until she could see her own haunted reflection, and she avoided the Cross family at all costs. She had a secret—a secret that sat in a small, locked metal box hidden beneath the floorboards of her tiny apartment in the city. A secret that would destroy Adrian Cross if it ever reached the light.
The kitchen door swung open, and Marcus Hale entered. His face was a mask of cold efficiency.
"Grace," he said.
Grace stood up, shielding Lily behind her. "Yes, Mr. Hale?"
"Mr. Cross wants to know who you saw in the upstairs hallway this morning."
Grace’s throat went dry. She had seen Julian Vane. She had seen him slipping out of the bridal suite, his eyes scanning the corridor with a nervous, frantic energy. But if she spoke, she was a dead woman. If she stayed silent, she was complicit.
"I... I was in the linens closet," Grace lied, her voice barely a whisper. "I heard footsteps. I didn't look out."
Marcus walked toward her, his shadow looming over the small kitchen island. He leaned down, his eyes locking onto hers. "Lily saw someone. A man with a shiny watch. You aren't in trouble for what you saw, Grace. You’re in trouble if you keep lying to protect whoever it was."
"I'm not protecting anyone!" she cried out. "I just want to go home!"
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"You'll go home when Mr. Cross is satisfied," Marcus said, turning on his heel. "Until then, you don't leave this room."
As the door clicked shut, Grace sank back onto the stool. She knew Marcus wouldn't stop digging. And she knew that if the man with the shiny watch was Julian Vane, her life was about to become a very short, very tragic footnote in the Cross family history.
