Chapter 1 - The White Roses And The Trembling Hand
The tears on Eleanor’s cheeks were still wet, catching the harsh afternoon light that flooded through the large pane window overlooking the water and the city skyline. My fingers were laced tightly with hers, her skin thin and fragile as parchment against my own. I had knelt beside the black medical wheelchair when her distress first broke through the quiet routine of the morning, desperate to offer whatever comfort a newly hired maid could provide.
"You understand me?" she had asked, her voice cracking with a raw, desperate need that cut straight through my professional composure.
"Yes, I understand," I answered, my own throat tightening as I looked up into her tearful, pleading eyes.
"Where is my son?" she whispered, pressing her trembling hands together in profound grief.
Before I could formulate a gentle reply, heavy footsteps echoed across the hardwood floor of the mansion's grand foyer. I turned my head, my heart skipping a beat as a tall man in a sharply tailored black suit strode through the doorway. He carried a large, dense bouquet of fresh white roses wrapped in dark green foliage, his expression a mix of weary affection and abrupt confusion. It was Luca, the master of the house, though the staff rarely saw him these days.
"What's going on?" Luca asked, his voice cutting through the heavy air of the sitting room as he halted near the threshold, flanked by two other junior maids who had paused nervously in the hallway.
Patricia, the head maid, materialized from the shadows near the corridor with an alarmed and defensive expression fixed on her stern face. She stepped smoothly between Luca and the wheelchair, her black uniform immaculate, her white apron unwrinkled.
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"The new maid upset your mother," Patricia declared quickly, her voice sharp and authoritative. "She's asking why you stopped visiting."
Luca froze, the bouquet of white roses slipping slightly in his grip. I rose from my kneeling position beside Eleanor, my pulse hammering against my ribs as I looked from Patricia’s hardened gaze to Luca’s stunned face. The lie hung in the sunlit air, thick and suffocating. Patricia expected me to shrink back, to keep my mouth shut and accept the blame to protect the fragile peace of the estate. But looking down at Eleanor’s trembling shoulders, I knew I couldn't let the deception stand. This was the moment everything changed.
