Chapter 1 – [HER LIES CRUMBLED IN FRONT OF EVERYONE]

The silence in the dining room was suffocating.

Forty-two guests stared at Veronica. The woman who, just minutes ago, had tried to brand me a thief.

Nico’s voice was dangerously calm.

“I asked you a question, Veronica. Why is my signature on a $240,000 loan I never authorized?”

Her perfectly manicured hands trembled. “Nico, darling, it’s a misunderstanding. I was protecting you. Your business has been… complicated lately.”

“So you forged my name and used my grandmother’s legacy as collateral?”

“It was just a bridge loan!” she snapped, her mask finally slipping. “I needed liquidity for the wedding! You’ve been so distant, I had to secure my own future!”

Nico stood up. He didn’t yell. He didn’t throw anything.

In his world, a quiet voice was far more terrifying than a loud one.

“Arthur,” Nico said, not taking his eyes off his fiancée. “Escort Miss Sterling to the gate. Cancel the wedding.”

Veronica gasped. “You can’t do this! In front of these people? Over a maid?”

“You aren’t leaving because of Hannah,” Nico said coldly. “You’re leaving because you stole from my family.”

As Arthur guided a screaming, crying Veronica out of the dining room, her clutch purse snagged on the back of a chair. It fell open, spilling its contents onto the Persian rug.

The guests began murmuring, but Nico turned to me.

“Hannah. I apologize for what she put you through tonight. Your job is safe.”

“Thank you, Mr. Moretti,” I whispered.

I knelt to gather the spilled items from Veronica’s purse to hand to the maid.

Lipstick. A compact mirror. A set of keys.

And a crumpled piece of paper.

As I picked it up, my blood ran cold. It wasn’t a receipt. It was a child’s drawing. Stick figures drawn in dark crayon. A tall woman with red hair—Veronica. And a little boy in a cage, crying.

Written at the top in messy, childish letters was one word: Help.

I looked up at Nico, my heart hammering in my chest.

“Mr. Moretti… who drew this?”

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