The envelope sat on her neatly folded bedsheets like a silent threat.
No stamp. No name. No return address.
Ava stared at it, heart pounding. Her hands trembled as she picked it up. Something about it felt… wrong. Her name wasn't written on it, just one word:
"Maid."
She closed her door, locked it, and slowly tore it open.
Inside was a single sheet of paper. No greeting. No signature. Just a single, typed message:
"I know who you are. And who the boy is. Tell Lucien the truth… and everyone else will know too. I'll be in touch."
Ava's knees gave out, and she sat hard on the bed.
No. No, no, no…
She crushed the letter in her hand, trying to breathe through the rising panic.
Someone knew.
Someone had seen her son. Had figured it out.
Was it a maid? A guest? One of the security staff?Whoever it was, they had chosen their timing perfectly, right after Lucien saw her son in the gardens.
Downstairs, Lucien was pacing.
He couldn't shake the image of the boy's face. It wasn't just the features, it was the way Ava had reacted. The tension. The fear. The lie.
He'd seen that kind of fear before.
It was the same way she looked in his dreams.
In those fragments of memory he couldn't piece together, there was always rain. Tears. Her voice whispering, "You have to forget me."
And now, a child. With his eyes. His smile.
That evening, Ava walked into the laundry room to find Celeste, Lucien's mother's head maid, holding the crumpled blackmail letter.
Ava froze.
"I found this in the trash behind the staff building," Celeste said coldly. "Care to explain?"
Ava snatched it from her hands. "It's private."
Celeste crossed her arms. "It's dangerous. And if you're bringing danger into this house, Lucien deserves to know."
"I'm handling it," Ava said, trying to keep her voice even. "Please don't say anything."
Celeste narrowed her eyes. "You're hiding something. And I don't care how pretty or polite you are, this house doesn't keep secrets for long."
That night, Ava stood by her son's bedside, watching him sleep.
She held the letter again, now smoothed out and folded into her pocket.
"I'll be in touch."
Whoever it was, they weren't bluffing.
And if she didn't figure it out fast… her entire world could unravel.