Se connecterPOV: NadiaI sat in the brown plastic chair in Clara's office while I ate and the metal spoon was heavy in my hand. I stared at the last drop of cold soup in the ceramic bowl. My face was still as I forced my breath to be slow.‘So the De Montclair family pays her,’ my mind repeated as the words from her phone call burned inside my brain. ‘She takes their wire transfers and protects their real estate deeds.’As I wandered through my thoughts, some footsteps thudded in the corridor and suddenly the door opened and Mrs.Clara walked back into the small room. She held a yellow paper folder against her green wool sweater and she smiled at me, with her wrinkles looking soft."Did you finish your soup, Nadia?" Clara asked with her voice very gentle."Yes," I said, flatly. I did not look into her eyes because I was afraid she would see the terror in mine. ‘Is she an actress like Gloria?’ I asked myself. ‘Did she lie about her husband's car accident to make me feel safe? Is she keeping me here
POV: Mrs. De Montclair.I watched my son from the doorway of the dining room. He sits at the long mahogany table, just there, he does not touch his steak as he stares at the wall but his fingers tap a slow, nervous beat against his crystal water glass.He is thinking about her again, I told myself as I feel a sharp pinch of anger in my chest. For a month, he has looked like a ghost, searching the rooms and questioning the maids. He is clearly looking for Nadia.Leandro drops his fork as he took the china plate with a loud clank, stood up without looking at me and walked out of the room. His leather shoes thud heavily against the marble floor as he goes toward his private study,then I step backward into the shadows of the hall. I know what he is doing. He is definitely looking for answers because yesterday, I saw him examining the loose floorboard in his office. He is getting too close to the truth and he is starting to doubt Gloria.I turned around and walked quickly down the west c
Pov (Leandro)I stepped into the grand entrance hall of my family’s mansion as the heavy doors click shut behind me and the sound echoes across the high marble ceilings. I stop by the bottom of the grand staircase and waited. Usually, Nadia is there to take my wool coat and her quiet, dignified presence fills the empty space. Today, everywhere feels dead and the house was cold. It feels strangely hollow.My mother, Victoria, stands by the gold mirror, adjusting her pearls with her movements elegant."Where is Nadia?" I asked loudly, my voice sounds too loud in the empty hall but my mother did not look back at me. "She is gone, Leandro. So do not ask about her again."I feel a sudden tightening in my chest as my fingers grip my leather briefcase tightly. Gone? my mind repeats. She has lived here for years and she does not just vanish into thin air. Something is definitely wrong, maybe my other is hiding something from me."She has worked here for a decade, Mother," I say as I stepped
POV: NadiaI laid on the cold metal table, gripping the paper sheet hard. Dr. Evans squeezes a glob of blue gel onto my bare belly. I flinch and gasp as the cold gel feels like ice on my skin. Then he pressed a heavy plastic wand into my stomach and moves it around."Look at the screen, Nadia," Dr. Evans says softly as I force my head to turn. My eyes widened when I stared at the gray monitor as waves of black and white static dance across the glass. Then, the doctor clicks a button, and the picture stops moving. A small, blurry gray bean appears in the middle of the dark screen.‘So this is real,’ I thought as my heart thumps hard against my ribs. ‘God, I cannot run away from this. There is a living thing inside me now and if I stay at this shelter, the De Montclair family will track me down and if I run out into the dark night, I have no money, no coat, and no home. I am just a bird trapped in a cage.’Then suddenly, a loud sound fills the tiny room. ‘Thump-thump, thump-thump, thu
(Pov Leandro)"Where is Nadia?"Those were the only words in my head right now. Not what Tessa had done, or the woman in the sheets, the headache, none of it. Just that one question, turning over and over again on my head."Where is she, Tessa?"Tessa set her coffee cup down and folded her arms. "Leandro, you need to calm down before you… ""Answer my question Tessa." I yelled. "Well, I don't know where your little maid is." She spoke with so much contempt in her voice and she watched my face when she said it, checking for my reaction. "Look Lean, frankly, that's not the conversation we should be having right now. What we should be talking about is…""We are not talking about anything." I picked my phone up off the dresser. The screen had eleven missed calls from my assistant, my cousin Rafael and two unknown numbers. I ignored all of them and wore my shoes."We are done talking." "Leandro." She spoke. "If you walk out of this room and make a scene, the photos from last night will
(Leandro’s Pov)I woke up around 8:16am. I lay still for three seconds and ran through what I could remember. I couldn't remember a single thing about how I got here.“Where am I?”I was still wondering where I was and then, suddenly I felt it. A manicured finger moving slowly across my chest in the most seductive way.I got up from the bed and looked and I saw a totally naked woman on my bed. I jumped off from the bed, and the room tilted. I had to grab the bedpost with one hand while the headache hit.The lady was lying across the sheets, watching me with her chin propped in her hand and a slow smile on her face. I had never seen her before in my life, with dark hair and an expensive makeup that had partially smeared overnight, wearing nothing but a sheet she was holding loosely at her waist.She looked at me the way someone looks at something they're proud of owning. "Look who is awake” she said slowly. “Good morning sweet dick”"Who are you?" I asked roughly as I looked around t
(Pov Nadia)Three weeks passed and then the nausea came every morning without fail, to a point I started waking up every ten minutes before it hit and just walking to the bathroom and waiting for it on my knees. At first, I told myself it was stress. I had read enough to know that stress could do
(Pov Nadia)The bus ride home took forty minutes.I sat in the back row with my duffel between my feet, and my face turned toward the window the whole time. I didn't want anyone to see my eyes. They were swollen already and I knew it. I could feel the thickness in my eyelids, the sting that wouldn'
(Pov Nadia)I should have seen it coming.And looking back now, I think I see the signs clearly. The way the other maids stopped talking when I walked into a room. The way Chef Margaret started giving me the worst chores again after months of leaving me alone.The way Mrs. De Montclair's personal a







