But Lily pulled it back.
“No,” she said firmly. “You’re not the driver.”
That was the moment everything shifted.
Three months earlier, I was just another maid.
My name is Hannah Cole. Twenty-eight. Single mom. Always one step away from falling apart.
I didn’t take the job because I liked rich people.
I took it because I had no choice.
Everyone knew the Whitmore estate had a reputation. Staff didn’t last. The man who owned it—Edward Whitmore—was brilliant… and impossible.
He didn’t yell.
He didn’t need to.
Silence followed him like a warning.
Then came the accident.
And everything stopped.
The first time Lily wandered into his study, I nearly panicked.
She stood there, staring at his massive model train set.
“It’s sad,” she said.
Edward looked at her.
“Why?”
“Because nothing’s moving.”
That answer stayed with him.
I could tell.
After that, Lily kept finding him.
She brought him things:
A cookie.
A crayon.
A leaf she thought was “special.”
Half a sandwich she refused to finish.
Edward never encouraged her.
But he never stopped her either.
And slowly—
Something began to change.
At first, it was barely noticeable.
He started answering her.
Then watching her.
Then… waiting for her.
Lily didn’t see a billionaire.