Chapter 2
I cleared the music parlor.
Only Mae, Nora, Celeste, Marcus and four bodyguards remained.
Nora refused to leave my arms.
I didn’t make her.
Celeste rolled her eyes.
“There.”
“What?”
“That.”
She pointed toward Nora.
“One whimper and the entire Ashford house rearranges itself.”
Nora flinched.
Celeste smiled.
“See? She knows.”
I stepped closer.
“She knows you hurt her.”
“I corrected her.”
“You threw her onto marble.”
“She put filthy hands on the piano.”
Mae’s face changed.
“Her hands were clean.”
Celeste laughed.
“You’re a servant. Clean is relative.”
Marcus almost smiled.
That told me this language was normal when I wasn’t around.
I looked at Mae.
“What did Nora mean about dinner?”
She hesitated.
Celeste answered.
“She works here.”
“That wasn’t the question.”
“If she finishes her work, she eats.”
I stared.
“You control Mae’s food?”
“She uses my kitchen.”
“My kitchen.”
Celeste’s mouth tightened.
I turned to Mae.
“Has she withheld meals?”
Mae whispered:
“Sometimes.”
“How often?”
No answer.
Nora answered for her.
“When Mommy makes Aunt Celeste mad.”
Celeste sighed.
“Oh, stop performing.”
My head turned slowly.
Nora pressed closer to me.
Celeste continued:
“She cries because Mae rewards it.”
I looked at her.
“She’s afraid of you.”
“Good.”
Silence.
Celeste heard herself.
Too late.
Then she smiled coldly.
“Fear teaches servants where boundaries are.”
Mae’s hand curled.
I held up the ring.
“Start with this.”
Celeste looked away.
Marcus stepped in.
“It’s an antique.”
“I know.”
“Old engravings happen.”
“Both my name and Mae’s?”
Silence.
I turned to Mae.
Her eyes fixed on the band.
“I’ve never seen it finished.”
My chest tightened.
“Finished?”
Celeste snapped:
“Mae.”
Mae ignored her.
“You ordered a ring four years ago.”
I stopped.
Memory moved.
Four years earlier.
Mae had not been my maid.
She had worked in the estate music rooms while studying composition.
And for six months—
she had been mine.
Secretly.
Completely.
Until she disappeared after I was attacked in Manhattan.
I stared at the band.
“You knew about this ring?”
Mae whispered:
“You told me you were having something made.”
Celeste’s face changed.
I looked at her.
“You knew too.”
She said nothing.
Marcus did.
May you like
“It was never supposed to reach you.”
And suddenly four missing years had a doorway.
