Chapter 3: Then Get Out Now
"Then get out now."
Serena didn't move.
For a moment she looked as though she genuinely hadn't heard him — as though the words had arrived in the wrong order and her mind was still trying to sort them.
"Victor."
"The door is behind you."
"You cannot be serious." Her voice dropped, and something underneath it shifted — not hurt, not shock, but calculation.
"You're choosing a nanny.
Over me.
Over everything we planned."
"I'm choosing my son."
Serena's eyes moved to Lily, then to the housemaid, then back to Victor.
She was counting something.
Measuring the room.
"You're emotional right now," she said.
"That's understandable.
But you need to think about what you're doing.
We have an engagement.
We have an announcement scheduled.
Do you have any idea what cancelling that looks like?"
"I know exactly what it looks like."
"Your board will have questions.
Your investors—"
"Serena." He said her name the way you close a drawer.
"Stop."
She stopped.
Ethan made a small sound against Victor's collar.
Victor shifted him gently, one hand cupped around the back of the boy's head.
The housemaid — her name was Rosa, she had worked in the mansion for six years — hadn't moved from the doorway.
Her hands were still clasped in front of her.
She was watching Serena the way a person watches a dog they are not sure about.
"Rosa," Victor said without looking away from Serena.
"How many times?"
Rosa's breath caught.
"Sir—"
"How many times did something happen to Ethan while I wasn't home?"
The silence that followed was its own kind of answer.
"At least four that I saw myself," Rosa said finally.
"There were others the kitchen staff mentioned.
I don't know the exact number."
Serena turned on her.
"You are going to lose everything over a lie—"
"She's not lying." Lily's voice came from behind Victor.
She was standing on her own now, one hand pressed flat against the wall for balance.
Her face was pale but her eyes were steady.
"And she's not the only one who saw it."
Serena looked at Lily the way you look at something that should have stayed down.
"You have nothing," Serena said.
"One recorder.
Staff testimony.
That's nothing.
My family's attorneys will dismantle every word before the week is out, and then I will make sure that every agency in this city knows exactly what kind of nanny you are."
Lily didn't flinch.
"Then they'll also know about the hospital visit."
The room shifted.
Victor turned.
"What hospital visit?"
Lily looked at him directly.
"Three weeks ago.
You were in Singapore.
Ethan had a bruise on his ribs that Serena said came from a fall.
I took him to the emergency room myself because something felt wrong." She reached into the pocket of her uniform and placed a folded paper on the side table beside her.
"The doctor noted it.
I kept the discharge summary."
Victor looked at the paper.
He didn't pick it up yet.
He looked at Serena.
Her expression had changed.
Not collapsed — not yet.
But something behind her eyes had gone very still, the way water goes still just before it freezes.
"That document means nothing," she said.
"Children fall.
Toddlers bruise."
"On their ribs?" Victor asked quietly.
She opened her mouth.
He picked up the discharge summary and read it.
Serena watched him read it.
And for the first time since he had walked through that door, she said nothing at all.
Victor folded the paper.
He looked up.
"I want you out of this house in one hour," he said.
"Don't take anything that isn't yours.
I'll have security confirm the inventory."
"Victor—"
"One hour, Serena."
She stared at him.
Then something moved across her face — a decision being made — and her chin lifted.
"You have no idea," she said softly, "who you're making an enemy of."
Victor looked at her for exactly one second.
"I think I'm beginning to."
Serena picked up her bag from the chair by the door.
She walked out without looking at Rosa or Lily.
Her heels were loud on the marble, then quieter, then gone.
The front door didn't slam.
That was almost worse.
Victor stood holding his son in the silence she left behind.
Ethan had fallen asleep against his shoulder, one small fist curled in the fabric of his jacket.
Rosa let out a breath she had clearly been holding for some time.
"Sir," she said carefully.
"There's something else.
Something we found last month that we didn't know what to do with."
Victor looked at her.
"We didn't know if you'd believe us," she said.
"We didn't know if it was our place."
"Tell me."
Rosa looked at Lily.
Lily gave a small nod.
"It was in the study," Rosa said.
"Behind the painting you never moved.
We found it when we were cleaning after the pipe burst."
She reached into her apron pocket and placed a small USB drive on the table beside Lily's discharge summary.
"We don't know what's on it," Rosa said.
"But it was hidden.
And it was hidden in a place only someone who knew this house very well would think to look."
Victor stared at the drive.
May you like
Ethan stirred in his sleep, made a soft sound, and settled again.
Victor picked up the drive.
