My blood turned to ice.

No one outside the nursery should have known my name.

I had only worked at the Rossi estate for six weeks. To the guards, I was just another maid who kept her head down and scrubbed marble floors without asking questions.

Yet the voice beyond the locked door whispered again.

“Emma…”

Soft.

Calm.

Almost affectionate.

Leo stirred in my arms, letting out a weak whimper. Instinctively, I rocked him closer against my chest while Lorenzo spun toward the door, pistol already raised.

“Who’s there?” he barked.

Silence.

The mansion seemed to hold its breath.

Then hurried footsteps disappeared down the hallway.

Lorenzo crossed the room in two long strides and yanked the door open.

Two guards rushed forward.

“Boss?”

“Seal the east wing,” Lorenzo ordered. “Nobody leaves this floor.”

The guards disappeared immediately.

Only after the hallway emptied did he slowly turn back toward me.

The pistol was still in his hand.

But it was no longer pointed at my head.

It hung loosely beside his leg.

“Who are you?” he asked quietly.

“My name is Emma Carter.”

“I know your name.”

His voice remained frighteningly calm.

“I want the truth.”

I swallowed hard.

“My daughter died three weeks ago.”

The words almost refused to leave my mouth.

“I… I was thirty-eight weeks pregnant.”

For the first time since entering the nursery, Lorenzo’s expression shifted.

Not much.

Just enough to reveal he hadn’t expected that answer.

“My milk never stopped coming,” I continued. “When your son reached for me… I couldn’t ignore him.”

His eyes dropped to Leo.

The little boy had fallen asleep peacefully against my chest.

His tiny cheeks finally carried a hint of color.

Lorenzo stepped closer to the crib monitor.

The feeding chart displayed numbers that hadn’t appeared in weeks.

Heart rate improving.

Swallow reflex active.

Oxygen rising.

He stared at the screen for several long seconds.

“When was the last successful feeding?” he asked without looking at me.

“I don’t know.”

He pressed a button on the monitor.

The system displayed previous records.

Nothing.

Almost every feeding over the last twelve days had been marked as “unsuccessful.”

His jaw tightened.

Then he looked toward the small table beside the sleeping chair.

The glass of wine.

Half empty.

He picked it up.

Smelled it.

His face darkened.

“My son’s night nurse doesn’t drink.”

I looked at the woman sleeping so heavily she hadn’t stirred through any of the shouting.

“She’s still unconscious,” I whispered.

Lorenzo crouched beside her and shook her shoulder.

No response.

Harder this time.

Nothing.

He touched the side of her neck.

His eyes narrowed.

“She’s been drugged.”

A cold shiver raced down my spine.

“So… she wasn’t starving Leo?”

“I don’t know anymore.”

His voice became dangerously quiet.

“But someone wanted every witness asleep.”

Before either of us could speak again, one of the guards burst into the nursery.

“Boss!”

Lorenzo stood instantly.

“What?”

“The security cameras.”

“What about them?”

“They went offline exactly twelve minutes ago.”

My heart skipped.

Twelve minutes.

Exactly when I had entered the nursery.

Someone had been watching.

Someone had expected me to come.

Lorenzo slowly turned toward me.

For a terrifying moment I thought he suspected me again.

Instead, he asked one question.

“Has anyone outside this house ever seen you feeding a baby?”

I frowned.

“No.”

“Did anyone know…”

His eyes briefly drifted toward my chest before returning to my face.

“…that you could save my son?”

Tears filled my eyes.

“No.”

Before Lorenzo could answer, another guard appeared in the doorway holding a folded sheet of paper inside a plastic evidence bag.

“We found this outside the nursery.”

Lorenzo opened it carefully.

His face lost every trace of color.

“What is it?” I asked.

He silently handed it to me.

Only one sentence had been typed across the page.

The wrong baby survived.

At the bottom was a tiny drawing.

A white lily.

The same flower I had placed on my daughter’s grave that morning.

Someone hadn’t just been trying to kill Leo.

Someone had been watching me long before I ever stepped inside the Rossi mansion.