Chapter 1 - THE SERVANT WHO WAS NEVER SUPPOSED TO ENTER
Six hours earlier, Clara Bennett had stood outside Valmont Palace in a borrowed uniform and wondered whether desperation could be seen on a person’s face.
The palace rose above the hills like a monument built to intimidate the sky. Pale stone towers framed rows of arched windows, and black iron gates guarded a driveway long enough to resemble a private road.
Clara had seen photographs of the estate before.
Everyone had.
The Valmont family controlled banks, shipping companies, private hospitals, luxury hotels, and enough political influence to make ministers return their calls before dawn.
Yet the family rarely appeared in public.
They preferred sealed boardrooms and guarded estates.
That evening’s charity gala was an exception. Alessandro Valmont had invited diplomats, business leaders, actors, and foreign royalty to raise money for orphaned children.
Clara would have found the irony amusing if her own daughter had not been sitting beside her in the staff bus, holding a worn blue rabbit.
“Mommy,” Emma whispered, “is this a castle?”
Clara looked down at the little girl.
Emma wore a plain yellow dress beneath a knitted white sweater. Her dark curls had been tied with blue ribbons, though one ribbon was already coming loose.
“It belongs to a family,” Clara said.
“A princess family?”
“Something like that.”
Clara had not intended to bring Emma.
The babysitter had canceled that afternoon, and Clara could not afford to miss another shift. Her temporary supervisor had reluctantly agreed to let Emma remain in the staff nursery downstairs, provided the child stayed quiet.
Emma hugged the rabbit.
“Will Daddy find us here?”
Clara’s chest tightened.
Emma still asked about Gabriel whenever they entered a new place.
Sometimes Clara told her that Daddy was watching from heaven. Sometimes she said he had become one of the stars. That morning, too exhausted to invent another gentle answer, she had simply kissed Emma’s forehead.
“Daddy always knows where you are.”
Gabriel had died eighteen months earlier in what the police described as a single-car accident.
His vehicle had left a mountain road during a storm and fallen into a ravine. The fire had been so intense that identification had required dental records.
Clara had never been shown his body.
Only a sealed casket.
Only a death certificate.
Only the wedding ring the authorities claimed they had recovered from the wreckage.
After his death, Clara discovered that almost everything Gabriel had told her about his past was impossible to verify.
There were no school records.
No childhood photographs.
No living relatives.
The architecture firm where he claimed to work had no employee under his name.
He had left behind no savings, no pension, and no explanation.
Only debts.
And the blue rabbit he had given Emma three days before his death.
The staff bus stopped near a side entrance.
Clara carried Emma inside and followed the other workers through a maze of service corridors. Kitchens roared with heat. Florists hurried past with white roses. Security officers checked identification badges at every intersection.
When a guard saw Emma, he frowned.
“Children are not permitted upstairs.”
“She’ll stay in the nursery,” Clara assured him.
The guard looked at the rabbit.
For a fraction of a second, his eyes narrowed.
Then he waved them through.
Clara did not notice the guard touch his earpiece as she walked away.
In the staff nursery, Emma sat at a small table with crayons and paper.
Clara crouched in front of her.
“I need you to stay here with Miss Rosa. I’ll come back as soon as the guests leave.”
Emma nodded bravely.
“Can Blue stay with me?”
“Blue always stays with you.”
Clara kissed her forehead.
As she turned to leave, Emma grabbed her hand.
“Mommy?”
“Yes?”
“Blue said the bad lady is here.”
Clara glanced at the toy.
Emma had recently begun pretending the rabbit could speak. Usually Blue talked about cookies, bedtime, or imaginary adventures.
“What bad lady?”
Emma pointed toward the ceiling.
“The one Daddy was scared of.”
A chill moved across Clara’s skin.
Before she could ask anything else, her supervisor called from the corridor.
“Clara, we need you upstairs.”
Clara forced a smile.
“No scary stories tonight, sweetheart.”
But as she stepped into the hallway, she remembered something Gabriel had once said during a nightmare.
She had awakened to find him sitting beside Emma’s crib, holding the blue rabbit and staring into the darkness.
Clara had asked him what was wrong.
May you like
Gabriel had answered in a voice she barely recognized.
“If a woman named Vivian ever sees this rabbit, take Emma and run.”
