“Let go of my son!” she shrieked, grabbing Lucas’s arm. “What have you done to him?”
Lucas cried out but clung tighter. Adriana lifted him instinctively, holding him close as he buried his face in her neck.
“Don’t touch him,” Adriana said, voice calm but commanding.
It wasn’t the tone of a servant.
Vanessa raised her hand to strike her.
“Security!” she screamed. “She’s kidnapping him!”
Guards hesitated.
“Stop!”
Harrison pushed through the crowd, pale and shaken.
“Lucas…” he whispered.
The boy pointed at Vanessa.
“Bad,” he sobbed clearly. “She bad. Gave medicine to Mommy. Mommy sleep. She hit Lucas.”
The world seemed to tilt.
Vanessa’s face drained of color. “He’s confused! It’s trauma! She put this in his head!”
Adriana stepped forward, no longer hiding. She removed her cap, letting her dark curls fall. She stood tall—no longer Adriana Reyes the maid, but Adriana Montgomery, heiress to one of the oldest fortunes in the state—and Isabella’s lifelong best friend.
“I don’t want your money, Harrison,” she said quietly. “I made Isabella a promise.”
From her apron, she withdrew a sealed envelope and a small recorder.