The morning sun cut through the floor-to-ceiling windows of the grand estate.
Sarah adjusted her black apron while smoothing down her simple white cotton uniform.
She had been working for the wealthy Vance family for only three short weeks.
Every single room in the mansion smelled like expensive roses and lemon wood polish.
Yet the thick silence inside the heavy walls made Sarah feel deeply uneasy every day.
She kept her head lowered whenever Victoria Vance walked past her in the high corridors.
Victoria was a tall blonde woman who wore silk evening gowns during morning breakfast.
She never smiled at the staff and rarely spoke to her own husband during dinner.
Arthur Vance was a powerful lawyer who ran a massive corporate firm downtown every weekday.
He spent long hours at his desk working on high-value estate settlements for wealthy clients.
When he came home late at night, he always checked on his young son first.
The toddler was ten months old and spent most of his daytime in the nursery.
Sarah swept the checkered marble floor of the grand entrance hall with slow movements.
She watched the little boy crawl safely near the heavy white columns near the foyer.
Her heart pounded wildly inside her chest every single time she looked at him.
She noticed the small heart-shaped birthmark right behind the toddler's tiny right ear lobe.
That mark was identical to the one Sarah carried on her own right shoulder blade.
She remembered the stormy night ten months ago when her baby was born downtown.
The hospital nurses had told her that her newborn son did not survive birth.
She had wept for weeks until a strange letter arrived at her small apartment address.
The anonymous note claimed her baby was alive and living inside a mega mansion.
Sarah took the low-paying maid job just to get inside the gated Vance estate grounds.
Now she stood just ten feet away from the toddler on the cold floor.
Victoria stepped out from the main library carrying a silver tray with warm tea.
She did not glance at the little boy crawling near the dark wooden doors.
Sarah dropped her straw broom to the marble ground with a sudden loud clatter.
She rushed forward on her knees to keep the infant away from the stairs.
Victoria turned around slowly with a cold sneer spreading across her pale lips.
Victoria: Mind your place, Sarah, and do not touch my highborn child.
Sarah: He was getting too close to the edge of the stone steps.
Victoria: I do not need a cheap maid telling me how to parent.
Sarah swallowed her rising anger and pulled her hands back into her apron pockets.
She knew she needed solid proof before she could speak out loud to anyone.
The massive front doors opened suddenly with a heavy creak across the marble foyer.