She noticed the way Daniel<unks eyes softened slightly whenever Maria walked into a room. She noticed how he said thank you to the maid the way most men only said it to their mothers. She told herself it meant nothing.
She told herself that every night for months. Tonight was the engagement party.
200 guests, a five- tier cake, a string quartet by the window, and Victoria in a red dress that cost more than Maria made in a year. Everything sparkled. Everything smiled.
And underneath all of it, something in Victoria
had been quietly cracking for weeks. It started with a photograph.
A small one tucked in Daniel’s desk drawer.
Maria laughing in the small kitchen of the penthouse. And Daniel beside her laughing, too.
A photo taken by his assistant months ago after they had successfully thrown together an anniversary surprise for his late mother’s memory.
Innocent. Completely innocent.
But Victoria didn’t see innocent.
She saw a threat wearing an apron. She said nothing about it.
Not to Daniel, not to anyone.
She simply watched and waited and let the poison sit in her chest until the night of the party when the champagne loosened everyone’s tongues and the balcony doors were left open to the cold Chicago air.
Maria had just stepped outside to check on the flower arrangements when Victoria followed her out. The music from inside sounded far away all of a sudden.
The city stretched out
below them, glittering indifferent.
“You think I don’t see you?”
Victoria said quietly, her voice like a blade wrapped in silk.
“You think nobody notices how you look at him.”
Maria blinked, startled.
“Ma’am, I don’t know what you don’t.”
Victoria snapped.
“Don’t you dare.
” And that’s when everything started to go wrong faster than anyone could stop it.
Something was about to happen on that balcony that no one, not even Victoria, could ever take back.
Maria took a step back, her hands raised gently, the way you’d approach a frightened animal.
Miss Sinclair, please.
