Chapter 2 - The Panicked Maid
Before the little girl could answer, a woman in a black maid’s dress with a clean white apron lunged forward from the crowd. It was Maria Rossi, the estate’s 30-year-old housekeeper and Emma’s mother. Her face was deathly pale, her skin slick with nervous sweat, and her hands trembled uncontrollably as she grabbed Emma’s small shoulder to pull her back.
"Forgive her, Don Lorenzo... she’s just a child!" Maria whispered frantically, her voice cracking in pure, hysterical terror under Lorenzo’s suffocating gaze. "She doesn't know what she’s saying! She's confused! I'll take her outside right now!"
Maria tried to tug Emma away, but the little girl stood her ground on the smooth marble floor, looking up into Lorenzo's intimidating presence without a single trace of fear in her wide, bright blue eyes.
"I'm not confused, Mommy," Emma spoke with absolute, unwavering certainty, her young voice carrying clearly across the silent hall. "Baby Sophia is alive. She sleeps at my house."
The air in the room seemed to freeze entirely. Lorenzo did not blink. He stared down at the three-year-old child, feeling an explosive mix of wild hope and terrifying fury erupting beneath his chest. For three days, his closest advisors had told him that his infant daughter was incinerated beyond recognition in the burning wreckage of his town car. They had handed him a sealed casket and told him to bury his grief.
Now, a child stood before him, declaring that his baby was sleeping in a maid’s cottage.
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Lorenzo slowly crouched down until he was eye-level with little Emma, his tailor-made suit trousers brushing against the marble floor. His stoic persona dissolved, replaced by a cold, deadly determination that made every guard in the room hold their breath.
👉 Click to continue reading and see how Lorenzo confronts the terrified housekeeper.
