Chapter 1 - Don’t Wake Her
Mia grabbed Hannah’s apron and whispered, “Please don’t leave me.”
Victor Romano entered the library holding Hannah’s employee badge.
There was a tiny black X scratched across the back.
Victor looked at Hannah.
Someone had marked her.
Hannah Brooks forgot how to breathe.
For eleven days, she had lived by the rules of Victor Romano’s estate because rules were the only reason she still had a paycheck.
Do not enter the private west corridor.
Do not answer the main telephone.
Do not ask questions about the security personnel.
And above all:
Miss Mia Romano was not to be touched, questioned, followed, or comforted.
If she became distressed, staff members were supposed to summon security.
Hannah had broken that rule forty minutes ago.
Now she sat on the thick carpet beneath the enormous oak desk in the library with eight-year-old Mia curled against her soft, full figure.
The little girl was asleep.
Actually asleep.
Her cheek rested over Hannah’s heart. One tiny fist remained twisted into the front of Hannah’s black uniform as if even unconsciousness had not convinced her that Hannah would still be there when she woke.
Victor stood ten feet away.
Three security men remained behind him.
Nobody moved.
Hannah had heard enough about Victor Romano to understand that silence from him could be more frightening than shouting.
He was tall and broad-shouldered, dressed in a black three-piece suit that looked as though it had been tailored around the fact that most people stepped out of his way before he ever needed to ask.
Silver-blond hair was swept away from a hard face.
His expression gave Hannah nothing.
But his eyes did.
They kept returning to Mia.
Not Hannah.
Not the broken rule.
Mia.
Hannah swallowed.
“I’m sorry, sir.”
Victor remained silent.
“I know what Mrs. Higgins told me.”
His gaze finally moved to Hannah.
“What did she tell you?”
Hannah hesitated.
“That Miss Romano wasn’t to be touched.”
One of the security men shifted.
Victor noticed.
So did Hannah.
Victor’s eyes sharpened.
“What else?”
“That if she became distressed, I should call security.”
“And did you?”
“No.”
“Why?”
The question was quiet.
Hannah looked down at Mia.
Because the truthful answer was likely to cost her the best-paying job she had ever had.
“She was terrified.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
Hannah looked back at him.
“I thought calling four strangers into the room while she was hiding under a desk might make her more terrified.”
Mrs. Higgins appeared behind the security men.
The older house manager looked horrified.
“Hannah.”
Hannah knew that tone.
Stop talking.
Unfortunately, fear had never been particularly good at making Hannah obedient.
Victor took one step closer.
Hannah instinctively tightened her arm around Mia.
Every man in the room noticed.
Victor stopped.
Something flickered across his expression.
Hannah immediately realized what she had done.
She had physically shielded Victor Romano’s own sister from him.
“Sir, I didn’t mean—”
“Don’t.”
Hannah froze.
Victor lowered himself beside the desk.
His attention settled on Mia.
For several seconds, Hannah heard only rain tapping the windows and the faint ticking of an antique clock somewhere behind her.
Then another roll of thunder moved across the estate.
Hannah braced herself.
Mia didn’t move.
Victor’s face changed.
It was almost nothing.
A slight release in his jaw.
A tiny widening of his eyes.
But Hannah saw it.
“Sir?” she whispered.
Victor looked at her.
“Don’t wake her.”
The words were so unexpected Hannah wondered if she had misunderstood.
Victor glanced toward his men.
“Everyone out.”
Mrs. Higgins hesitated.
“Mr. Romano—”
“Now.”
The room emptied.
Victor remained.
So did Hannah.
And Mia slept between them.
Victor pulled a chair closer and sat.
“How?”
Hannah frowned.
“How what?”
“How did you do this?”
“I didn’t do anything.”
“My sister hasn’t slept through thunder in two years.”
The words landed differently from everything else Victor had said.
Hannah looked down.
She knew part of Mia’s history. Everyone employed at the estate knew the carefully sanitized version.
Two years earlier, when Mia had been six, her parents had died in an explosion.
Victor had become her legal guardian.
Mia had stopped speaking.
What Hannah had never understood was why comfort itself had apparently become forbidden.
“She was under the desk,” Hannah said. “I sat down.”
“That’s all?”
“I told her I wouldn’t leave.”
Victor stared at her.
Hannah almost smiled.
“I’m not secretly a child psychologist, if that’s what you’re asking.”
His expression remained severe.
“That would have appeared on your background check.”
Of course he had checked.
Hannah looked at him more carefully.
“You really want to know?”
“Yes.”
“I gave her a choice.”
Victor’s brow tightened.
“A choice?”
“I didn’t pull her out. I didn’t tell her to stop crying. I didn’t tell her there was nothing to be afraid of.”
“Why?”
“Because she was afraid.”
Victor went still.
Hannah continued quietly.
“Adults say that to children all the time. ‘There’s nothing to be afraid of.’ But if you’re already terrified, it just means the adult isn’t seeing what you’re seeing.”
Victor looked toward the windows.
“What did you tell her?”
“That she could stay under the desk.”
“And?”
“That I’d stay too.”
Another silence.
Then Victor asked, “Why?”
That question felt more personal.
Hannah considered lying.
She didn’t.
“My mother spent a lot of time in hospitals.”
Victor looked back at her.
“She still does.”
Hannah adjusted Mia carefully.
“I learned that sometimes you can’t fix what’s hurting somebody. You can just make sure they’re not alone while it hurts.”
For the first time, Victor seemed to have no immediate response.
Then Mia stirred.
Both adults froze.
The little girl’s fingers tightened.
“Hannah,” she breathed.
The sound was so faint Hannah almost missed it.
Victor didn’t.
His face drained of color.
Hannah looked at him.
“What?”
Victor stood abruptly.
The chair scraped against the floor.
Mia startled.
Hannah immediately rubbed her back.
“It’s okay. It’s okay.”
Mia settled again.
Victor stared.
Hannah’s confusion deepened.
“What happened?”
Victor’s voice came out rough.
“She said your name.”
Hannah looked down.
“She probably heard me introduce myself.”
“You don’t understand.”
His composure had vanished.
“My sister hasn’t spoken a word in two years.”
Hannah stared at Mia.
The child looked peaceful.
A sleeping eight-year-old had just accomplished something half a dozen specialists apparently had not.
Hannah didn’t know whether to feel hopeful or terrified.
Victor walked toward the windows.
“Mrs. Higgins.”
The house manager appeared almost immediately.
Victor didn’t turn around.
“Miss Brooks is reassigned.”
Hannah’s stomach dropped.
Of course.
She had known this was coming.
Mrs. Higgins cleared her throat.
“To which department?”
Victor turned.
“Mia.”
Hannah blinked.
“I’m sorry?”
“You heard me.”
“I’m a maid.”
“Not anymore.”
Hannah carefully lowered her voice.
“Mr. Romano, I appreciate whatever you think happened here, but I’m not qualified to—”
“You’re the first person she has voluntarily approached in two years.”
“That doesn’t make me qualified.”
“No.”
His gaze softened by a fraction.
“It makes you someone she trusts.”
Hannah looked down at Mia.
That frightened her more than losing the job.
Trust was responsibility.
And responsibility could break your heart.
“What exactly are you asking me to do?”
“Stay near her.”
“For how long?”
“I don’t know.”
“That isn’t a job description.”
A strange expression crossed Victor’s face.
It might have been the beginning of amusement.
Mrs. Higgins looked scandalized.
Victor said, “We’ll write one.”
Hannah almost laughed.
She stopped herself.
Then Victor extended something toward her.
Her employee badge.
She hadn’t realized he was still holding it.
Hannah carefully shifted Mia and accepted it.
Her thumb passed over the back.
She felt the scratch.
The black X.
“What is this?”
Victor’s expression hardened again.
“I was about to ask you.”
“I’ve never seen it.”
Mrs. Higgins stepped closer.
“Those badges are issued blank.”
Hannah turned it over.
“My badge was in my locker before the storm.”
Victor looked toward the doorway.
“Who had access?”
Mrs. Higgins hesitated.
“Most senior staff.”
Victor’s attention sharpened.
“Get me the security footage.”
“Yes, sir.”
She left.
Hannah studied the X.
Something cold moved through her.
“Maybe someone marked the wrong badge.”
Victor didn’t answer.
That silence told her he didn’t believe it.
Neither did she.
Mia moved again.
This time her eyes slowly opened.
For several seconds, she seemed confused.
Then she saw Hannah.
Her shoulders relaxed.
Victor stepped closer.
“Mia.”
The little girl looked at her brother.
Victor’s entire posture changed.
He lowered himself.
“Hey.”
Mia stared at him.
Victor held out his hand.
She didn’t take it.
Pain passed across his face.
Hannah pretended not to notice.
Then Mia looked toward Hannah’s badge.
Her expression changed instantly.
She sat upright.
Her eyes widened.
“Mia?”
The little girl reached for the badge.
Hannah handed it to her.
Mia stared at the black X.
Her breathing accelerated.
Victor saw it.
“Mia, what is it?”
She shook her head violently.
Hannah lowered her voice.
“You don’t have to tell us.”
Mia looked at her.
Hannah held out her palm.
“Can you show me?”
Mia hesitated.
Then she took Hannah’s hand.
With one finger, she drew an X across Hannah’s palm.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
Victor leaned closer.
“What does it mean?”
Mia suddenly pulled away.
She climbed out from beneath the desk and ran.
“Mia!”
Victor started after her.
Hannah caught his sleeve.
He turned sharply.
“Give her a second.”
“My sister just—”
“I know.”
“No, you don’t.”
Victor pulled free.
“She recognized that mark.”
Hannah stood.
“So chasing her down a hallway with security behind you will help?”
Victor stared at her.
Nobody, Hannah suspected, spoke to him like this.
That might eventually become a problem.
Tonight, she didn’t care.
“She trusted me because I didn’t chase her,” Hannah said. “Let me go.”
Victor’s jaw tightened.
Then he nodded.
Hannah followed.
She found Mia upstairs in her bedroom.
The door was open.
The child sat on the floor beside her bed.
A wooden box rested in front of her.
Hannah stopped at the threshold.
“Can I come in?”
Mia nodded.
Hannah entered.
Victor remained outside.
That surprised her.
She sat beside Mia.
The box contained crayons, photographs, folded papers, and several small toys.
Mia dug beneath them.
Then she removed a drawing.
Four stick figures.
A mother.
A father.
A little girl.
A taller man Hannah assumed was Victor.
There was a fifth figure near the edge of the page.
Its face had been completely covered in black crayon.
Above it was an X.
Hannah’s heartbeat quickened.
Mia handed her another drawing.
Same figure.
Same X.
Then another.
Victor stepped into the room.
“Mia.”
The little girl looked at him.
Victor crouched.
“Who is that?”
Mia’s eyes filled with fear.
Hannah reached for her hand.
Mia squeezed it.
Then the girl pointed toward the bedroom door.
Victor looked.
Nobody was there.
But something had been pushed beneath it.
A white envelope.
Hannah stood.
“That wasn’t there when I came in.”
Victor moved faster.
He picked it up.
There was no name on the front.
He opened it.
Inside was a single photograph.
Victor stared at it.
Every trace of warmth disappeared from his face.
Hannah stepped closer.
“What is it?”
He slowly turned the photograph around.
It showed Hannah entering the estate eleven days earlier.
Taken from a distance.
Someone had been watching her from the beginning.
On the back were five handwritten words.
Victor read them once.
Then again.
Hannah saw his fingers tighten.
“What does it say?”
Victor lifted his eyes toward her.
Before he could answer, footsteps stopped outside Mia’s bedroom.
The door handle moved.
Victor turned toward it.
May you like
Someone on the other side whispered Hannah’s name.
Then the door began to open...
