Chapter 2 - THE FIRST LIE BREAKSThe entire nursery seemed to hold its breath.
Richard stared at Mrs. Gable.
“Who told you that?”
The old nanny’s hands shook at her sides. She looked past Richard toward Victoria, and in that one glance, everything changed.
Richard saw fear.
Not confusion.
Not embarrassment.
Fear.
Victoria’s expression tightened for less than a second before she smoothed it away.
“Mrs. Gable is elderly,” Victoria said gently. “She gets confused when she’s tired. Richard, darling, we have two hundred guests downstairs. This isn’t the time to interrogate staff over a toddler’s imagination.”
Richard did not move.
“Maya said ‘dark room.’”
Victoria sighed sadly. “Children repeat things. Perhaps she heard a story from one of the maids.”
Maya lifted her head from Richard’s shoulder just enough to see Victoria.
Her whole body stiffened.
“No Vicky,” she whispered.
Victoria’s eyes flashed.
Only Richard saw it.
Then she placed her hand over her heart and let her face crumble into hurt.
“She won’t even call me Mommy,” Victoria said. “After everything I’ve done.”
Richard turned slightly, placing his body between Victoria and Maya.
“Mrs. Gable,” he said again. “Who told you not to open the wardrobe?”
The nanny’s eyes filled with tears.
“She did.”
The words barely came out.
But they landed like glass breaking.
Victoria went still.
Richard looked at his wife.
Victoria let out a shocked breath. “That is disgusting. Richard, surely you don’t believe—”
“I didn’t ask you.”
The room fell silent.
For the first time since their marriage, Richard’s voice was not gentle with her.
Victoria’s cheeks flushed beneath her flawless makeup.
Mrs. Gable began crying. “I’m sorry, sir. I didn’t know what to do. Mrs. Sterling said Maya needed discipline. She said the child was spoiled, that she screamed whenever she didn’t get attention.”
Richard’s jaw tightened.
“Discipline?”
Victoria laughed once, sharp and false. “This is absurd.”
Mrs. Gable stepped closer, trembling.
“She would put Miss Maya inside for short periods when she cried. Ten minutes. Sometimes fifteen. She told me if I interfered, I would be dismissed without reference.”
Richard felt Maya’s tiny hands clutch his collar.
The world narrowed.
The marble floors.
The chandelier.
The gala below.
All of it disappeared.
Only one thing remained.
His little girl had been terrified inside her own home.
Richard looked at Victoria.
“You put my daughter in a wardrobe?”
Victoria’s face changed.
The tears vanished.
For one naked second, the graceful mask slipped.
Then she whispered, “I was trying to help her behave.”
Richard stared at her as if seeing a stranger wearing his wife’s face.
Behind him, Mrs. Gable wiped her eyes.
“There’s more, sir.”
Richard turned slowly.
Mrs. Gable looked at the ceiling corner.
“The nursery camera stopped working three weeks ago.”
Richard’s blood ran cold.
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Because he had checked the security system that morning.
And according to his phone, the nursery camera was still recording.
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