Chapter 5

The cold marble floor of the corridor seemed to absorb the last remnants of courage Ameena possessed. After Damien left, she rose to her feet, her legs still trembling, and roughly wiped away her tears. She knew that in this place, tears were a luxury that would only make her appear weak in the eyes of the other servants who were always watching her.

Meanwhile, inside his spacious office, Damien Leonardo was fighting a battle with himself. He grabbed the glass of whiskey from the table, downed it in one gulp, then hurled the glass against the wall, where it shattered upon impact.

"Damn it!" he cursed, his breathing ragged.

His mind was trapped. The image of the fat maid's cleavage kept spinning through his thoughts, haunting every last corner of his sanity. He felt betrayed by his own body. Every time he closed his eyes, he no longer saw the figure of his late wife, but the curves of that strange woman—Ameena. A burning heat spread from his lower abdomen, making his blood boil with a desire he hated.

He immediately headed toward his private bathroom, turned on the ice-cold water, and let it pour over his body, which was still clad in his expensive shirt. He cursed endlessly beneath the running water. Don't get caught up in this, Damien. She's nothing but a seductive maid. Don't let yourself fall into the cheap trap of a woman like her. Yet every drop of water touching his skin only brought back the faint memory of the sweet sensation that had briefly touched his lips in the middle of the forest. A warmth he should never have longed for.

Elsewhere, inside a magnificent mansion designed in a classical style, Bella Saphira was elegantly sipping her afternoon tea. However, her tranquility was shattered when her personal assistant, Barca, arrived with news that made Bella's eyes widen.

"Madam, our intelligence team managed to intercept a conversation at the Leonardo residence," Barca said in a low voice. "It turns out that Mr. Damien is searching for the woman who saved him in the forest. They found a silver earring that was left behind at the scene."

Bella placed her porcelain cup down with a slightly trembling hand. An earring? How could there possibly be a surviving eyewitness?

"Find out what that earring looks like right now," Bella ordered, her voice now as sharp as a razor. "Barca, even if you have to burn down every jewelry market in this city, do it. I must get a picture of that earring before Damien finds it."

Bella stood up and stared at her reflection in the large mirror. As a noblewoman who had grown up surrounded by luxury, she had long harbored an obsession with Damien. When Damien's wife died, Bella felt that fate had finally taken her side. Damien is mine. His wife is dead, and there is no place for another woman to take my throne as Mrs. Leonardo. She would not allow anyone to stand in the way of her ambition.

Back at the Leonardo residence, the atmosphere inside the nursery was far calmer, yet much more suffocating for Ameena. The baby in her lap had begun nursing peacefully. Ameena stared blankly at the tiny face. Every suck from the baby reminded her of Alby. She felt as though she were betraying her own son.

"Forgive me, Alby," Ameena whispered, tears falling onto her employer's baby's cheek. "I have to do this so that you can stay alive."

At the doorway, Damien, who had initially intended to check on his son, stopped completely. He heard the soft sobs. He saw a sight he should have hated: the woman crying as she lovingly breastfed his baby. Yet instead of feeling disgusted, Damien's heart began pounding so hard that his chest felt tight.

This woman... the expression on her face as she cried, the gentleness of her hand as she stroked the baby's head—all of it triggered an extraordinary wave of emotion. Damien's lower body suddenly stiffened without warning. He felt his body reacting irrationally, as though his desire had received an order of its own that defied logic.

Damn, damn, damn.

Damien clenched his fists until his knuckles turned white, struggling desperately to control himself so that he would not storm inside and do something crazy. He turned around sharply and walked away as quickly as possible before the maid noticed him.

Ameena wiped away her tears, unaware that she had been watched by the man she feared most in this mansion. She only felt a sudden chill pass through the room, but she was too immersed in her longing for Alby to think about anything else.

Damien walked through the corridor with long strides, his thoughts in turmoil. He convinced himself that the fat maid had nothing to do with his savior. The woman from the forest was an angel, not a crude maid who could not even maintain her own manners. He swore he would find the earring and prove that the woman in the nursery was nothing but a seductress.

Meanwhile, on the other side, Barca managed to obtain a sketch of the earring after bribing an informant in the police department. He immediately brought it to Bella. Bella stared at the sketch of the silver earring engraved with a rose, a sly smirk spreading across her face.

"Simple, but with this earring, I will become Mrs. Damien," Bella murmured. "Barca, have an exact duplicate made. I will go to Damien immediately and give him 'proof' that I was the woman in the forest."