Chapter 1 - The First Word
For the first time since her mother’s death, Lily Rossi smiled.
It was small.
Barely there.
Just the faintest lift at the corner of her mouth as she stared at Beatrice from beneath the kitchen table.
Then she whispered one word.
“Bee.”
Beatrice stopped breathing.
She had been working at the Rossi estate for only seven months, and until that moment, she had never heard Lily speak above a frightened murmur.
Leo heard it from the doorway.
He had arrived without Beatrice noticing.
The most feared man in Chicago stood perfectly still with rain darkening the shoulders of his black coat.
For several seconds, he simply stared at his daughter.
Then he looked at Beatrice.
“What did she say?”
Beatrice swallowed.
“I think she called me Bee.”
Lily reached through the tablecloth and held out half of her cookie.
“Bee.”
Leo turned his face away.
Beatrice understood immediately.
He did not want either of them to see him cry.
That rainy afternoon became the beginning of something no one in the Rossi household had expected.
Lily began following Beatrice everywhere.
She sat on the counter while Beatrice baked.
She waited outside the laundry room while Beatrice folded sheets.
She brought picture books into the kitchen and leaned against Beatrice’s hip while Beatrice washed vegetables.
When thunderstorms came, Lily no longer hid alone.
She found Beatrice.
And gradually, the silence inside the child began to crack.
Two words became five.
Five became sentences.
Within six months, Lily was laughing again.
Leo noticed all of it.
He noticed that Lily ate better when Beatrice sat nearby.
He noticed that she stopped waking from nightmares on the nights Beatrice stayed late.
He noticed that his daughter, who had flinched when strangers reached toward her, climbed willingly into Beatrice’s arms.
But Leo Rossi had survived too long by mistrusting anything he needed.
So instead of thanking Beatrice, he doubled her salary.
Instead of telling her what she meant to his daughter, he had Mateo add her name to Lily’s emergency-contact list.
Instead of admitting that the sound of Lily laughing with Beatrice made the enormous mansion feel less like a tomb, he simply began coming home earlier.
Then Victoria Kensington entered their lives.
Victoria was everything Beatrice had spent her life believing powerful men wanted.
Thin.
Elegant.
Educated in Switzerland.
Dressed in silk even at breakfast.
The daughter of Sterling Kensington, chairman of Kensington Global and one of the wealthiest financiers in the country.
Victoria knew exactly how to stand beside Leo in photographs.
She knew the names of senators.
She knew what wine to order.
She knew which charity board mattered and which one merely looked impressive in newspapers.
Most importantly, she understood how to make Leo believe marrying her would stabilize the dangerous world surrounding his daughter.
At first, Victoria was charming with Lily.
She arrived with expensive dolls.
She arranged private ballet lessons.
She had a Paris designer send dresses in Lily’s exact size.
But children had instincts adults trained themselves to ignore.
Lily never relaxed around her.
Whenever Victoria entered a room, Lily moved closer to Beatrice.
Victoria noticed.
Beatrice noticed Victoria noticing.
The first warning came one afternoon in the sunroom.
Lily had climbed into Beatrice’s lap with a book.
Victoria watched from across the room.
“That isn’t really appropriate,” she said.
Beatrice looked up.
“What isn’t?”
“She’s getting too attached to staff.”
Beatrice’s arms tightened automatically around Lily.
“I don’t encourage anything inappropriate.”
Victoria smiled.
“I’m sure you don’t mean to.”
Lily buried her face against Beatrice’s chest.
Victoria’s smile disappeared.
“You understand that once Leo and I are married, things will change.”
Beatrice said nothing.
Victoria walked closer.
“This family needs structure.”
Lily whispered against Beatrice’s uniform.
“I like Bee.”
Victoria heard her.
The look that crossed her face lasted less than a second.
But Beatrice saw it.
Hatred.
Not irritation.
Not jealousy.
Hatred.
May you like
That was when Beatrice began watching Victoria Kensington.
And three months later, that vigilance was the only reason Lily Rossi survived the cellar.
