Daddy, Why Is Everyone Calling Mommy the Maid?
CHAPTER 1 - THE NAME THAT STOPPED THE ROOM
"Daddy... why is everyone calling Mommy 'the maid'?"
The question broke the banquet in half.
One second, Noah had been weaving through silk gowns and dark suits in his tiny black tailcoat, his shoes slipping on the polished marble floor as chandeliers burned above him.
The next, he was clinging to the gray-uniformed waitress with both arms around her neck, crying so hard his small body shook.
The silver tray in her hand tilted.
Crystal glasses rattled but did not fall.
She stared at him as if the world had opened beneath her feet.
"Noah," she whispered, and that one word held shock, love, and pain so deep it made several guests turn away.
At the round table near the dance floor, Evelyn Hart's painted mouth twisted with disgust.
"Noah! Get him away from her!"
Beside her, Adrian Vale had already stepped forward. Tall, controlled, elegant in his black suit, he looked like a man who had spent years mastering silence.
Then Noah said that word.
Mommy.
Adrian stopped dead.
He turned to the waitress.
Her face had gone white. Her dark hair was pulled into a high ponytail. Her gray work dress and white apron made her look almost anonymous, except nothing about her eyes was ordinary now. They were full of tears.
"Lucia...?" Adrian's voice came out ragged. "You're back?"
A murmur rushed through the room.
Evelyn rose so sharply her chair scraped the floor. "This is insane. Adrian, she is clearly manipulating the child."
The waitress held Noah closer, not tighter, just enough to steady him. "I'm not manipulating anyone."
Her voice was low. Careful.
Adrian stared at her as if he no longer trusted his own memory. Three years ago, Lucia Maren had vanished after a boating accident off the Amalfi Coast. No body had been found. No proof she had lived.
Only grief.
Noah lifted his wet face. "You left and I waited."
Lucia closed her eyes for one second.
Then an older woman in a dark green staff jacket pushed through the crowd, looked straight at Lucia, and said, "You weren't supposed to come tonight. Not after what Evelyn paid you."
