Daddy, Why Is Everyone Calling Mommy the Maid?

CHAPTER 2 - THE WOMAN IN GRAY

The room came alive again in the ugliest way.

Guests whispered behind raised glasses. A violinist near the stage stopped playing altogether. Evelyn went pale, then angry.

"That's a lie," she snapped. "Who even are you?"

The older woman straightened. "Marta Ruiz. I manage the temporary banquet staff. And I know what I heard."

Lucia's hand trembled beneath the silver tray. Noah still clung to her neck, refusing to let Adrian take him.

Adrian looked from Marta to Evelyn. "Paid her for what?"

Evelyn laughed too quickly. "For coming here dressed as staff and causing a scene, apparently. You cannot be taking this seriously."

Lucia finally spoke. "I didn't come for money."

"Then why are you here?" Evelyn shot back.

Lucia looked at Noah first, then at Adrian. "Because I got a letter. It said my son needed me."

That landed harder than anything else.

Evelyn's face lost color.

Adrian moved closer. "Your son?"

Lucia swallowed. "Yes."

"Noah is my son," Adrian said, but the force had gone out of his words. They sounded less like a claim and more like a question he had asked himself too many times in private.

Noah pulled back just enough to touch Lucia's cheek with one small hand.

"You sang the boat song," he said.

Lucia broke.

A sob escaped before she could stop it.

Every night for the first year after Lucia disappeared, Noah had screamed until dawn unless Adrian carried him to the nursery window and hummed the tune Lucia used to sing before bed. Adrian had never told anyone that. Not Evelyn. Not even his sister.

"Take Noah upstairs," Evelyn said sharply. "He's confused."

"No." It was the first time Adrian had openly defied her all evening.

He turned to Lucia. "Where have you been?"

Before she could answer, a thin man in a catering jacket approached from the kitchen entrance, visibly shaking.

"I saw the envelope," he blurted. "The one for her. Ms. Hart told me to put it with the staff schedules. She said if Lucia Maren appeared, no one was to inform Mr. Vale."

Adrian's head snapped toward Evelyn.

And Lucia reached into her apron pocket, pulled out a folded paper with Adrian's handwriting on the front, and said, "I thought you wrote it."