Chapter 1: The Sound on the Marble
Chapter 1: The Sound on the Marble
“What do you think you’re doing?”
Victoria’s voice sliced through the peaceful parlor.
Lily’s tiny fingers stopped above the piano keys.
She turned slowly on the bench, her dark pigtails brushing her cheeks.
“I’m making it sing.”
Victoria placed her porcelain cup on a side table.
“You are touching a priceless instrument with filthy hands.”
Lily looked at her palms.
They were clean.
“Mama washed them.”
“I don’t care what your mother did.”
Victoria crossed the room, each strike of her heels sharp against the marble.
“That piano belonged to Ethan’s mother. It is not a toy for the help’s child.”
Lily reached for Button, the worn rabbit sitting beside her.
“I was careful.”
Victoria’s mouth tightened.
“You people always say that after you damage something.”
Lily did not understand the insult.
She only understood the anger.
Her lower lip trembled.
“I can get down.”
She began sliding carefully from the bench.
But Victoria was already too close.
Her hand struck Lily’s shoulder in a quick, dismissive motion.
“Then get down.”
Lily slipped.
The bench had no back.
Her small body fell sideways, and her head narrowly missed the piano leg before she landed on the marble.
Button fell beside her.
A single accidental chord rang through the room.
Then silence.
Lily stared upward, too shocked to cry.
Victoria looked toward the doorway.
For a moment, panic flashed across her face.
Then she straightened her shoulders.
“You lost your balance.”
Lily blinked.
“You pushed me.”
“No, I didn’t.”
“You did.”
“Children imagine things.”
That was when Ethan appeared in the doorway.
His car keys were still in one hand.
His phone was in the other.
He had returned because he had forgotten a contract in his study.
Instead, he found his fiancée standing over a three-year-old child lying on the floor.
“What happened?”
Victoria turned immediately.
“Thank God you’re here. The maid’s daughter climbed onto your mother’s piano and fell.”
Ethan barely heard her.
He was looking at Lily.
At her round face.
Her dark lashes.
Her trembling chin.
And then she opened her eyes fully.
Gray-green.
An unusual shade.
The same color Ethan saw every morning in the mirror.
His fingers went numb.
The car keys slipped from his hand and hit the marble.
Lily flinched at the sound.
Ethan took one slow step forward.
Victoria watched him.
“What is it?”
He did not answer.
Lily reached for Button and whispered, “Mama.”
Footsteps thundered from the hallway.
Rosa rushed into the room, white sheets still gathered in her arms.
The sheets dropped instantly.
“Lily!”
She fell to her knees beside her daughter.
“Baby, look at me. Where does it hurt?”
Lily pointed at Victoria.
“She pushed me.”
Victoria’s face hardened.
“That is a lie.”
Rosa looked up.
For the first time in two years, she looked directly at Ethan.
And Ethan finally saw her.
Not the uniform.
Not the apron.
Her.
His face drained of color.
“Rosa?”
Victoria turned sharply.
“You know her?”
Rosa wrapped both arms around Lily.
Ethan stared from Rosa to the child.
Then back again.
His voice was barely audible.
“How old is she?”
Rosa froze.
Victoria’s eyes narrowed.
Ethan asked again.
“How old is Lily?”
Rosa’s silence answered before her words did.
“She turned three in August.”
Ethan stopped breathing.
Three years.
Three months with Rosa.
Then silence.
Then a child with his eyes.
He took another step forward.
“Rosa…”
She lifted Lily into her arms.
“Not here.”
But Victoria had already understood enough to become dangerous.
She looked at Lily with open disgust.
Then at Rosa.
“What exactly are you trying to pull?”
Rosa held her daughter tighter.
And Ethan’s expression changed.
The cold billionaire disappeared.
In his place stood a man realizing that three years of his life might have been stolen from him.
“Victoria,” he said quietly, “leave the room.”
She laughed once.
“You cannot be serious.”
“Leave.”
Victoria looked down at her diamond ring.
Then back at Lily.
“No.”
Her voice turned sharp.
“This is my house too.”
Ethan’s gaze became colder than the marble beneath them.
May you like
“No,” he said. “It isn’t.”
And for the first time since their engagement, Victoria looked afraid.
