Resting her bandage against his palm, the housemaid looked directly at him

Finn looked up at his father, his wide, innocent eyes reflecting the gentle golden highlights of the nearby ivory candles. The boy wore a neat formal shirt, and despite the tension in the room, his voice remained steady, bolstered by the safe, towering presence of his father.

“Tessa was showing me how to play a new song,” Finn said, his small hands gripping the edge of the banquet table. “She was sitting next to me on the bench. Sabina walked into the room, and she looked really mad. She told Tessa to get out.”

“Did Tessa refuse to leave, Finn?” Rowan asked, his tone measured and encouraging.

Finn shook his head, his fair skin pale. “No. Tessa stood up and said she was sorry. But I didn't want her to go. I grabbed her hand and I said, ‘Don't go, Mommy.’ I didn't mean to make Sabina mad. It just slipped out because Tessa is always so nice to me.”

Tessa closed her eyes, a single tear escaping to trace a path down her cheek. She reached out with her uninjured left hand, gently resting it on Finn’s shoulder to comfort him.

“What did Sabina do next, my son?” Rowan asked, his gaze fixed entirely on the boy, ignoring the frantic, ragged breathing of the woman standing behind him.

“Sabina screamed,” Finn whispered, his voice trembling slightly at the memory. “She grabbed Tessa’s arm and pushed her back toward the piano. Tessa’s hand landed on the keys, and Sabina grabbed the heavy wooden lid and slammed it down as hard as she could. Tessa fell to the floor and she was crying, but she told me to cover my ears so I wouldn't be scared.”

The brutality of the act hung heavily in the bright, luminous room. Sabina had not just closed the lid; she had weaponized a heavy instrument to deliberately crush the bones of a woman who offered her no resistance.

Rowan’s artistic tattoos flexed as his hands curled into fists at his sides. He looked at Tessa’s thick white bandage, imagining the sheer agony she had endured in silence just to serve his dinner guests perfectly.

“Were you frightened when she did this to Tessa, Finn?” Rowan asked, his voice thick with a father’s protective fury.