Chapter 3
Chapter 3: The Weight of the Secret
Arya stood slowly, her legs feeling like jelly.
The office, once a place of terror, now felt like the eye of a hurricane.
“What do you mean, I’m not a maid?” she asked, her voice barely a whisper.
Dante walked to his desk and opened a hidden drawer.
He pulled out a thick, dust-covered folder.
“Your mother wasn’t just a nurse,” he said, sliding the folder across the mahogany surface.
“She was a partner,” he explained.
Arya opened the folder.
Inside were photos, legal contracts, and handwritten letters signed by her mother and Dante’s father.
“Why didn’t she ever tell me?” Arya asked, her hands shaking.
“Because she knew that if the people who betrayed my father found out you existed, they would come for you,” Dante said.
He looked at her with a depth of concern that felt entirely foreign.
“I’ve been searching for the person who held these documents for years,” he admitted.
“I never thought to look under my own roof,” he sighed.
Arya felt a tear escape, but she wiped it away quickly.
“So you kept me here to protect me?” she asked.
“I didn’t know it was you,” Dante clarified.
“I only hired a new maid,” he added.
“But now that I know,” he said, leaning over the desk, “you are in danger.”
“Because they will realize the files are here,” he realized.
“Who are ‘they’?” Arya asked.
“The board of directors,” Dante said, his jaw tightening.
May you like
“The same people who signed your mother’s eviction from the medical foundation,” he revealed.
“And they are meeting in this house tonight,” he said.
