Chapter 1: The Lie
Emiliano Duarte kissed his daughters goodbye and told them he was flying to Europe.
“Papa has important meetings in Paris and Milan,” he said, smiling as he crouched down to their level. “I’ll be back in four days. Be good for Patricia, okay?”
Sofia, eight years old, nodded silently. Martina, five, wrapped her small arms around his neck and whispered, “Come back soon, Papa.”
He hugged them tightly, then walked out the front door with his suitcase. His driver took him away from the mansion. But forty minutes later, the car returned through the back gate.
Emiliano changed into a black hoodie and entered the hidden monitoring room with his head of security, Marco. Twelve screens glowed in the dark.
He wasn’t going to Europe.
He was here to watch.
For months, his fiancée Patricia had been whispering poison into his ears.
“Rosa is too attached to the girls.”
“She lets them misbehave.”
“I think she’s been going through your things.”
Tonight, he would see the truth with his own eyes.
At first, everything looked normal. Rosa cleared the dinner table while the girls colored on the rug. Then the last staff member left the house.
The moment the door closed, Patricia’s face changed.
Her sweet expression disappeared. She snatched Martina’s stuffed rabbit and threw it across the room.
“Stop acting like a baby,” she snapped. “You’re too old for that filthy thing.”
Martina flinched and immediately reached for her older sister. Sofia pulled her close, both girls shrinking into themselves like they had done this many times before.
When Rosa tried to calm the situation, Patricia turned on her viciously.
“Know your place. You’re just the maid. If you keep interfering, I’ll make sure Emiliano fires you.”
Emiliano sat frozen in the dark room, watching his daughters tremble.
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He had come here to catch a thief.
Instead, he discovered that the woman he planned to marry had been terrifying his children… while the quiet housekeeper had been protecting them all along.
