The first sound I heard was Ethan screaming.

Not crying.

Not fussing.

Screaming.

There is a difference, and when you've spent nearly every waking hour with a child for nine months, you know it before your mind has time to understand it.

I dropped the folded towels in my arms and ran.

"Ethan?"

His scream came again from the east sitting room.

I reached the doorway and froze.

Fourteen-month-old Ethan Blackwood was on the marble floor beside the coffee table.

Serena Vale was standing over him.

One of Ethan's little hands was trapped in hers.

His arm was twisted behind him at an angle that made my stomach turn.

"Serena!"

She looked at me.

Not startled.

Not ashamed.

Annoyed.

That frightened me more than anything.

"What are you doing?"

"He tried to hit me."

For half a second, I couldn't even answer.

Ethan was fourteen months old.

He had only learned to walk without holding furniture three weeks earlier. He still called every animal a "dog." He thought spoons belonged on the floor. When he was tired, he rubbed his left ear and buried his face against my shoulder.

He wasn't capable of attacking anyone.

"Let him go."

Serena tightened her grip.

Ethan screamed again.

I ran toward them.

"Please! You're hurting him!"

"He needs to learn."

"He's a baby!"

I reached for Ethan.

Serena shoved me backward with one hand.

My hip struck the edge of the table, and I fell hard onto the marble.

Pain exploded through my side.

But I barely felt it.

All I could see was Ethan.

His face had gone red from crying.

His tiny fingers opened and closed desperately.

"Please," I begged. "Please, Serena. You're breaking his arm."

Something changed in her expression.

Not guilt.

Satisfaction.

She crouched slightly, still holding Ethan's wrist, and looked directly at me.

Her voice dropped until it was almost a whisper.

"Do you know what your problem is, Lily?"

I stared at her.

"You've forgotten what you are."

"Let him go."

"I'm going to be his mother."

"No. You're going to marry his father."

Her eyes hardened.

I shouldn't have said it.

I knew that immediately.

For months, I had learned how Serena worked.

She didn't shout when she was truly angry.

She became quiet.

She straightened.

She smiled.

And then she found whatever frightened you most.

"You think Victor is going to choose you over me?"

"This isn't about me."

"Oh, isn't it?"

She finally released Ethan.

He collapsed forward, sobbing.

I crawled toward him and pulled him against my chest.

The moment I touched his left arm, he shrieked.

My blood went cold.

"God."

I stopped moving it.

"It's okay, sweetheart. Lily's here. I've got you."

Serena stood above us.

Perfect cream dress.

Diamond bracelet.

Hair without a strand out of place.

She looked like the woman who had appeared beside Victor Blackwood on the cover of three society magazines that summer.

Beautiful.

Elegant.

Untouchable.

Six weeks from becoming Mrs. Victor Blackwood.

She looked down at me holding his injured son and smiled.

"Who do you think he'll believe?"

I said nothing.

"His future wife?" she whispered. "Or a cheap nanny?"

My hands began trembling.

Because that was the terrible part.

I didn't know.

Victor loved Ethan.

Of that I had never doubted.

But Victor also trusted Serena.

And Serena had spent months making sure he distrusted me.

Never enough to fire me.

Just enough.

A complaint here.

A misunderstanding there.

Lily forgot Ethan's medicine.

She hadn't.

Lily let Ethan cry for twenty minutes.

I hadn't.

Lily was becoming possessive.

Maybe Victor should think about replacing her before the wedding.

I knew because I'd once overheard Serena saying it on the phone.

And every time I tried to defend myself, I sounded exactly like what Serena wanted me to sound like.

Defensive.

Emotional.

Jealous.

A nanny who had become too attached to a wealthy widower's child.

So I'd stopped defending myself.

I'd told myself I could endure Serena for Ethan's sake.

That decision felt unforgivably stupid now.

Ethan whimpered against me.

I looked toward the security camera above the doorway.

Its green indicator light was gone.

My heart sank.

Serena followed my eyes.

Then she smiled.

"Looking for something?"

"You turned it off."

"Prove it."

I stared at her.

She crouched beside me.

"Listen carefully, Lily. Victor comes home tonight, and I'm going to tell him I walked in here and found you losing your temper with Ethan."

My mouth went dry.

"What?"

"You grabbed his arm because he wouldn't stop crying. I tried to stop you. You attacked me."

"You're insane."

"And you're unemployed."

She leaned closer.

"Unless you're smart."

Ethan was still crying.

I could feel every little shudder running through him.

"What do you want?"

"Leave."

"No."

"Resign tonight. Tell Victor you can't handle the job anymore. I'll even convince him to give you a generous severance."

I stared at her.

She had planned this.

Maybe not Ethan's injury.

But the rest of it?

The camera.

The accusation.

Getting rid of me.

She had planned enough.

"I won't leave him with you."

For the first time, Serena's smile disappeared completely.

"Then I'll destroy you."

A voice came from behind her.

"What happened here?"

Serena went rigid.

I stopped breathing.

Ethan stopped crying for one tiny second, as if even he recognized the voice.

Serena slowly turned.

Victor Blackwood stood in the doorway.

He was supposed to be in Chicago until midnight.

Instead, he was standing ten feet away.

His dark coat was still on.

His briefcase hung from one hand.

His face was unreadable.

But his eyes were on Ethan.

Then on me.

Then Serena.

Then back to Ethan's arm.

I had worked for Victor long enough to recognize his anger.

People expected a billionaire CEO to explode.

Victor didn't.

The angrier he became, the quieter he got.

He placed his briefcase on the floor.

"What happened?"

Serena answered immediately.

"Thank God you're here."

She rushed toward him.

I couldn't believe it.

Three seconds earlier she'd been threatening me.

Now her voice was shaking.

"Victor, I didn't know what to do. I came in and Lily was—"

She covered her mouth.

Perfect performance.

Victor didn't touch her.

"Lily was what?"

Serena looked at me.

"She hurt Ethan."

My entire body went cold.

"That's a lie."

"Lily, please don't make this worse."

"You did this!"

Victor's gaze moved between us.

"Stop."

One word.

Both of us fell silent.

He walked toward me and crouched.

"Ethan."

His voice changed when he said his son's name.

The steel vanished.

"Hey, buddy. Daddy's here."

Ethan reached for him with his right hand.

Victor tried to lift him.

The moment Ethan's left arm moved, he screamed.

Victor's face changed.

He looked at me.

"What happened to his arm?"

"Serena twisted it."

Serena gasped.

"Victor!"

"I saw her holding him when I came in. She said he tried to hit her. She wouldn't let go."

"She's lying!"

"Enough."

Victor took out his phone.

"Dr. Harris is coming here. Now."

Serena started crying.

Actual tears.

I almost admired how quickly she could produce them.

"Victor, please. You know me."

Victor looked at her.

"I thought I did."

Those four words made her stop.

Then he looked up at the camera.

"Why is that off?"

Nobody answered.

Victor rose.

"The security cameras run continuously."

Serena wiped her eyes.

"I don't know."

"I do," I said.

She shot me a warning look.

"Serena turned it off."

"I did not."

"Then why did you ask me if I was looking for it?"

Her face flickered.

Only for a second.

Victor saw it.

I saw him see it.

He turned toward the table.

Something small caught his attention beneath it.

He bent down.

When he stood again, there was a tiny black recorder in his hand.

My recorder.

I had forgotten it was there.

The red light was blinking.

Serena looked at it.

And for the first time that afternoon, she seemed afraid.

Victor frowned.

"What is this?"

I swallowed.

"Mine."

"Why is it recording?"

"I left it there after Ethan's speech session this morning."

It was true.

Ethan's speech therapist had asked me to record some of the sounds he was making so she could track his progress. I'd turned the recorder on after lunch while encouraging Ethan to repeat a few simple words.

Then he'd gotten sleepy.

I'd taken him upstairs.

Later, he'd wandered back into the sitting room while I went to get towels.

I'd forgotten the recorder completely.

Victor looked at me.

"How long has it been running?"

"I don't know."

His thumb hovered over the button.

Serena stepped forward.

"Victor, that's ridiculous. You can't possibly trust some—"

He pressed PLAY.

At first there was only static.

Then Ethan's babbling.

My voice.

"Can you say ball?"

Ethan's laughter.

A pause.

Footsteps.

Then Serena.

"What are you doing in here?"

Ethan babbled.

A sharp sound.

Then his cry.

Serena's voice.

"Stop it."

Ethan cried louder.

Another sound.

My voice came next, distant at first.

"Ethan?"

Then footsteps.

Running.

And suddenly the entire room heard it.

"Serena!"

"What are you doing?"

"He tried to hit me."

"Let him go."

"He needs to learn."

"He's a baby!"

Then the crash of my body hitting the table.

My own voice begging.

"Please! You're hurting him!"

Nobody moved.

The recorder continued.

"Please, Serena. You're breaking his arm."

Then Serena's voice.

Clear.

Cold.

"You've forgotten what you are."

I closed my eyes.

I didn't need to hear the rest.

But Victor did.

And Serena had no way to stop it.

"You think Victor is going to choose you over me?"

"This isn't about me."

"Oh, isn't it?"

Then Ethan screaming.

Then Serena again.

"Who do you think he'll believe? His future wife… or a cheap nanny?"

Victor stopped the recording.

Silence swallowed the mansion.

Serena's face had gone completely white.

Victor stared at her.

I thought that was the moment everything would end.

I was wrong.

Because a voice came from the staircase.

"Sir?"

We all turned.

Maria, one of the housemaids, stood at the top of the stairs.

She was crying.

Her hands were shaking.

Victor looked at her.

"Maria?"

She came down slowly.

Halfway down, she stopped.

"I'm sorry."

"For what?"

Maria looked at Serena.

Serena's expression changed.

"Don't."

Maria flinched.

Victor heard it.

His eyes narrowed.

"Maria."

She looked at him.

"This wasn't the first time."

And suddenly, the recorder in Victor's hand didn't feel like the worst thing Serena had to fear.

It felt like the first door opening.

---