Chapter 2: Shadows of the Past
Victoria’s confident demeanor shattered in an instant. Her eyes widened in disbelief, her hands clutching her clipboard so tightly her knuckles turned white.
"You're firing me?" she gasped, her voice shrill. "For a common servant? A woman who snuck into this house under false pretenses? Mr. Ethan, you don't know what she is! You don't know what she's done!"
"I know what I see," Ethan replied coldly. "I see a woman who uses her authority to torment a child and his mother. I see a woman who just lied to my face. The security cameras in the hallway were restored yesterday, Victoria. Would you like me to review the footage of who actually tipped over the vase?"
Victoria gasped, a flicker of genuine terror crossing her face. She opened her mouth to argue, but the cold finality in Ethan’s eyes silenced her. Realizing she had lost this battle, she straightened her coat, gave Sarah a venomous glare, and stormed out of the room, her heels clicking angrily against the floor.
Silence returned to the room. Ethan turned back to Sarah, who was staring at him in shock.
"Thank you, sir," she whispered, tears flowing freely now, but no longer out of fear. "Thank you. But... we really should leave. It's not safe for us to stay here."
"Not safe?" Ethan asked, brow furrowed. "Victoria is gone. No one in this house will ever lay a finger on you or Leo again."
"You don't understand," Sarah said, her voice trembling. "Victoria isn't just a housekeeper. She works for your stepmother, Eleanor. If Eleanor finds out Leo is here... if she realizes who he is..."
Ethan felt a cold draft sweep through the room. Eleanor Sterling. His late father's second wife, a woman whose greed was as vast as it was ruthless. After his father’s death five years ago, Eleanor had tried to claim the entire Sterling inheritance, failing only because Ethan had fought her in court for two grueling years.
"Why would Eleanor care about a maid and her child?" Ethan asked, though a dark suspicion was already forming in his mind.
Sarah looked at Leo, who had walked over and wrapped his small arms around her waist. She stroked the boy's soft brown hair, her eyes filled with a mother's fierce, protective love.
"Because seven years ago, before you left for the European office, before your father passed... you met a girl at the estate's charity gala," Sarah whispered. "A girl working the catering line. You spent one miraculous night together before Eleanor had her framed for theft and thrown out."
Ethan froze. The memory, long suppressed under the weight of grief and corporate warfare, hit him like a physical blow. The quiet girl with the kind eyes. The girl who had vanished without a trace the very next morning.
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"Sarah..." Ethan breathed, his voice breaking. He looked down at Leo. The hazel eyes. The shape of his jaw. The way he held his hands when he was nervous. It wasn't a coincidence. It had never been a coincidence.
"He's yours, Ethan," Sarah said softly. "Leo is your son."
