Chapter 1
She can’t keep disappearing every time something happens at home!” the beautiful fiancée complained about a maid whose baby was only three months old, but when another employee finally spoke up, the mafia boss discovered that Hannah wasn't the first victim…
IF YOUR BABY NEEDS YOU THAT MUCH, MAYBE YOU SHOULDN’T BE WORKING HERE.”**
The mafia boss’s fiancée said it at the dinner table, holding my blue lunch bag between two fingers.
Then she emptied it into the trash.
The small bottles inside were filled with milk I’d saved for my son.
I was twenty-eight, a housemaid in the Moretti home, and it was my second week back at work. My baby was only three months old. My mother watched him while I worked, but her arthritis had been getting worse, and I couldn’t afford to lose my paycheck.
I’d left the bag in the refrigerator off the kitchen. The head housekeeper had told me I could.
Apparently, Vanessa Bellini disagreed.
“You can’t keep personal things where we store food for guests,” she said.
I stood there with a tray of champagne glasses in my hands. Across the table, Luca Moretti looked up from his conversation.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “Mrs. Alvarez used to let me keep it there.”
“Mrs. Alvarez doesn’t work here anymore.”
Vanessa brushed her hands together and turned back to the guests.
I should have picked up the bag. I should have said something immediately.
Instead, I kept thinking about the bottles I’d prepared, the time I’d spent away from my son, and how carefully I’d labeled each one before my shift.
My hands began to shake.
“Miss Bellini,” I said, “that was for my baby.”
Vanessa gave a small, impatient sigh. “Hannah, surely you can replace it.”
I looked down at the tray because I could feel tears coming. I’d worked too hard to keep this job, and I didn’t want to cry in front of thirty strangers.
“I’ll need a few minutes,” I said.
“We’re in the middle of dinner.”
“I understand, but I need to call my mother.”
Vanessa lowered her voice. “We discussed this. You can’t keep disappearing every time something happens at home.”
I nodded, because that was what I’d been doing for two weeks. Nodding when she shortened my breaks. Nodding when she told me to keep my phone in my locker. Nodding when she said a mother with a new baby should be grateful anyone would hire her.
Then Luca stood.
“Hannah, put the tray down.”
I obeyed, though I was certain Vanessa would fire me as soon as the guests left.
Luca looked at her. “Did you know what was in the bag?”
“She told me afterward. The guests don’t need to see employees’ belongings in the refrigerator.”
“The refrigerator is in the kitchen.”
“That isn’t the point,” Vanessa said. “We have a household to run. If everyone takes a break whenever they feel like it, nothing gets done.”
I stared at the floor.
“Hannah,” Luca said, “have you been told you can’t take breaks?”
Vanessa answered before I could. “I told her to be reasonable.”
I thought about my son at home and the rent due next week.
Then I thought about how I’d sat in the car outside the house that morning, staring at his picture because I already missed him.
“She told me you’d replace me if I left the room again,” I said.
The table fell silent.
Luca looked at Vanessa. “I never said that.”
“She misunderstood me.”
I wanted to believe I had. It would have been easier.
Luca asked one of the other servers to bring me my phone. Then he pulled out a chair near the end of the table.
“Call your mother. We’ll sort out the rest.”
I stepped into the hallway instead. Mom answered on the second ring, and I could hear my son fussing in the background.
“He’s all right,” she told me. “Take a breath.”
When I returned, Luca was still standing beside my chair.
“You mentioned Mrs. Alvarez,” he said. “Vanessa told me she retired to spend more time with her husband.”
Mrs. Alvarez had cooked for the family for twenty-two years. She’d taught me how to fold the dinner napkins and always sent me home with soup when I was pregnant.
“She asked for two days off,” I said. “Her husband was in the hospital.”
Luca’s expression changed. “Why didn’t she call me?”
“She tried. Vanessa told her you were the one who said she’d be replaced.”
Vanessa opened her mouth.
May you like
Before she could speak, the older server beside me set down her pitcher.
“She told me that, too,” she said."
