Chapter 2 - The Stepmother's Rage
Before Emma could answer, the double mahogany doors of the private suite slammed open with violent force.
Victoria, a striking woman in an emerald silk designer gown, rushed into the room, followed by two hotel security guards.
Instead of checking on the crying child or thanking the trembling waitress who was still crouching over him, Victoria’s eyes burned with cold, vicious fury.
"Get your filthy hands off my son!" Victoria shrieked, grabbing Emma by her collar and shoving her harshly against the splintered wooden frame.
Emma stumbled back, her hands scraped and bleeding from the broken crystal, but her eyes remained fierce and protective as she kept herself between Victoria and the child.
"Ma'am, the cabinet was falling," Emma said, her voice shaking but firm. "He would have been crushed if I didn't cushion the impact!"
Victoria slapped Emma across the face with a loud, ringing crack that silenced the entire room.
"You clumsy, incompetent peasant!" Victoria spat, wiping her manicured hand on a silk napkin as if Emma were contagious. "You set this trap on purpose! You loosened that cabinet to try and extort my husband's family!"
Leo scrambled to his feet, tears streaming down his small cheeks as he pulled on Victoria's dress. "Mommy, no! The nice lady saved me!"
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Victoria shoved the boy behind her roughly. "Be quiet, Leo! She's a low-life thief trying to play the hero!"
👉 What sinister reason made Victoria so eager to frame and humiliate the waitress who saved her stepson?
