His office was warm and imposing, filled with dark wood and the faint aroma of leather. When he finally demanded she explain herself, the words spilled out in a torrent she could no longer restrain.
“The nursery is freezing. The cribs felt like ice. One of them was burning up while the other wouldn’t stop screaming. I have been working all day, I haven’t eaten, and when they finally slept, I couldn’t bear to put them back up there alone. I laid down with them so they wouldn’t feel abandoned.”
Her voice cracked, and a single tear traced a path over the bruise on her cheek. “I didn’t mean to fall asleep, but I would do it again if it meant they felt loved for a single night.”
The Turning Point
Nathaniel turned away, staring out the window as if the city lights offered answers, before asking quietly, “Who did that to you?”
After a long pause, she admitted, “One of your guests, last week. I was carrying dishes, and he pushed past me. I fell. No one said anything.”
The memory tightened his jaw. When she added, “You are never here. You don’t see them, and I don’t exist,” the undeniable truth hung between them.