Chapter 2 - The Stolen Christmas
To understand the sheer, crushing cruelty of the empty space under the tree, one had to look at the monster running the household.
Claire was a hardworking single mother, employed as a live-in maid for Adrian Moretti, the terrifying, absolute boss of the city's criminal syndicate. Adrian was rarely home, completely consumed by his violent empire. In his absence, the mansion was managed by Mrs. Higgins, a bitter, highly abusive head housekeeper who despised anyone she deemed "beneath" her.
For the last six months, Claire had saved every single spare penny she earned. She had secretly purchased three small, beautiful gifts for Lucy, carefully wrapping them in cheap paper and hiding them in the staff quarters. She just wanted her daughter to have one magical Christmas morning.
But yesterday, Mrs. Higgins had found the hidden presents.
Out of pure, unadulterated spite, the cruel housekeeper had thrown Claire's gifts directly into the industrial incinerator, claiming that "staff trash" was a fire hazard. When Claire had sobbed and begged for the toys back, Mrs. Higgins had threatened to fire her on Christmas Eve and throw her and her daughter out into the freezing Chicago snow.
Claire had spent the entire night crying in the dark, absolutely shattered that she couldn't give her daughter a single thing for Christmas.
As Claire knelt on the marble floor, rocking her weeping three-year-old, a sudden movement caught her eye.
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A medium shot captured Owen, Adrian Moretti’s eight-year-old son. He wore a neat navy cardigan and a white shirt, his short brown hair perfectly combed. The young heir to the criminal syndicate slowly walked across the marble floor and knelt down directly beside the crying maid and her daughter.
👉 Owen didn't say a word, but what he held in his small hands was about to completely shatter his father's hardened heart.
