Chapter 2
Before Ruby could reach out and take the faded fabric from Adrian's hands, the heavy mahogany door to the study was pushed wide open.
Elena Cruz, the twenty-six-year-old estate maid, rushed frantically into the room. She was a beautiful young woman with fair, rosy skin and dark, panicked eyes. She wore a pristine, professional black-and-white maid uniform, a starched apron, thick tights, and sensible black flats. Her American accent was breathless as she crossed the marble floor, her hands reaching out for her daughter.
"Ruby! I told you never to wander into the west wing!" Elena gasped, her chest heaving as she closed the distance. "Mr. Blackwood, I am so incredibly sorry. I turned my back for one second in the laundry room, and she slipped away. It won't happen again, sir."
"Elena," Adrian said, remaining on one knee, his cold, sharp eyes shifting from the three-year-old child to the terrified mother. He held the pink-and-white patchwork blanket up slightly. "Where did you get this?"
Elena stopped abruptly, her eyes landing on the familiar fabric. "That’s Ruby’s blanket, sir. I’ve had it since the day she was born."
Before Elena could take another step toward her daughter, the sharp, aggressive clicking of designer heels echoed rapidly down the corridor. Claudia Blackwood, Adrian’s fifty-one-year-old older sister and the ruthless administrator of the family estate, stormed into the private study.
Claudia wore an elegant, tailored emerald business dress that accentuated her fair, rosy complexion. Heavy diamond jewelry glittered at her neck, and massive diamond rings adorned her manicured fingers. She radiated an aristocratic, venomous arrogance that demanded absolute compliance from the estate staff.
Claudia did not hesitate. She lunged forward with terrifying speed, her hand shooting out to rip the pink-and-white blanket directly from Ruby’s small hands just as the child had finally touched it.
"Hey! Don't touch her!" Elena cried out, moving to shield her daughter.
Claudia forcefully shoved Elena away from Ruby. Her diamond-encrusted hand struck the maid's shoulder, sending the younger woman stumbling backward across the slippery marble floor.
"Keep your filthy hands off me, you insolent girl," Claudia hissed, her sharp American accent echoing harshly through the cinematic brightness of the study. She crumpled the pink-and-white blanket in her fists, glaring down at the terrified maid and the weeping child.
"Claudia. Step back," Adrian commanded. His voice remained incredibly low, but the measured, dangerous cadence carried the weight of an absolute threat.
"I am simply maintaining the standards of this household, Adrian," Claudia snapped, her chest heaving as she looked at her brother. "This staff is becoming far too comfortable wandering into your private sanctuary. It is completely unacceptable."
"She is a child," Elena pleaded, pulling Ruby securely behind her starched apron. "She just wanted her blanket back. Please, Miss Claudia, it’s all she sleeps with."
Claudia sneered, holding the faded pink fabric up with absolute disgust, as if it were contaminated. "It’s an old charity rag. Throw it away. I will not have this house cluttered with the garbage you drag in from the streets."
"It is not garbage," Elena fired back, tears of humiliation burning in her eyes. "It was the only thing I had to wrap her in when we left the hospital! Give it back!"
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"I will burn it myself," Claudia declared, turning her back on the maid and marching toward the roaring fireplace at the far end of the study.
"I said. Step back. Claudia," Adrian repeated, rising slowly to his full, imposing height.
