Chapter 1 - The Judgment
The marble foyer of the Cross estate felt like an icebox.
I stood shivering in my thin coat, clutching my worn duffel bag with trembling hands.
Adrian Cross stood at the top of the sweeping staircase, looking down at me like a king surveying a ruined kingdom.
His cold gray eyes traveled over my plus-size body.
He let his gaze linger just long enough to make his judgment obvious.
"You’re the new live-in maid?" he asked, his voice completely void of emotion.
"Yes," I replied.
"I asked for someone who could handle this house," he said smoothly.
Heat immediately climbed into my face.
"I can," I insisted.
Adrian did not even look at me as he glanced toward his house manager.
"Send her back," he ordered.
That single sentence nearly destroyed me.
My mother had died six months earlier after a long, expensive illness.
My savings were completely gone.
The tiny room I had been renting in the city was already promised to someone else.
Walking out of that mansion meant having nowhere to sleep by nightfall.
"Give me thirty days," I said, stepping forward.
Adrian looked almost offended that I had dared to speak again.
"If I can’t do the job, I’ll leave without an argument," I promised.
After a long, suffocating silence, he finally gave a brief nod.
Then he made one thing brutally clear.
"You work here, nothing more, so stay out of my way."
May you like
I nodded, agreeing to his harsh terms because I had absolutely no other choice.
But as I turned to follow the house manager down the hall, I heard the unmistakable sound of a gun being cocked behind me.
