CHAPTER 2 – "The Man Under the Bed"
The entire room went silent.
Security stopped moving.
The baby stopped crying.
And Victoria Ashford stood frozen like someone had poured ice into her veins.
From beneath the bed, a man slowly crawled out.
His black suit was wrinkled. His face was pale. Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth.
It was Richard Ashford.
Victoria’s billionaire husband.
Everyone gasped.
Emma covered her mouth in horror.
“Mr. Ashford?” the butler whispered.
Richard struggled to stand, gripping the bedpost as if his legs could barely hold him.
Then he looked directly at his wife.
“Tell them, Victoria,” he said weakly. “Tell them why I was under there.”
Victoria forced a laugh.
“Richard, darling, you’re confused. You must have fallen—”
“Fallen?” Richard’s voice turned sharp. “You drugged me.”
The room exploded with whispers.
Victoria’s face twisted.
“That maid did it!” she screamed, pointing at Emma. “She came into our bedroom! She must have attacked him!”
Emma shook her head, trembling.
“No! I swear I didn’t!”
Richard raised one hand.
“Enough.”
He looked at the security guards.
“Check the bedside drawer.”
Victoria lunged forward.
“No!”
But it was too late.
One guard opened the drawer and pulled out a small bottle of sleeping pills… and a folded document.
Richard’s eyes filled with pain.
“She planned to make it look like I overdosed,” he said. “Then she was going to accuse Emma of stealing from us and disappearing.”
Emma’s knees nearly gave out.
Victoria screamed, “You have no proof!”
Richard smiled bitterly.
“I do.”
He pointed to the ceiling corner.
“The new security camera. You forgot I installed it yesterday.”
Victoria turned toward the tiny black camera above the curtain.
Her mouth opened.
No words came out.
Richard looked at Emma, his voice softening.
“And the baby… Noah isn’t mine.”
The room went dead silent again.
Victoria’s face collapsed.
Richard continued.
“I found the DNA results last night. That’s why she tried to get rid of me before the gala.”
Emma stared at the baby in Victoria’s arms.
Then Richard said the sentence that shocked everyone most:
“But Noah is not the problem.”
He stepped closer to Emma.
“The problem is… Emma is my daughter.”
Gasps filled the bedroom.
Emma froze.
“What?”
Richard’s eyes became red.
“Your mother worked here twenty-two years ago. Victoria forced her out when she discovered the truth. I searched for you for years.”
Victoria screamed like a trapped animal.
“You were never supposed to know!”
Richard looked at the guards.
“Call the police.”
Victoria tried to run, but the butler blocked the door.
And as she was dragged away, Emma looked at the crying baby—the innocent child caught in a web of lies.
Richard placed a hand on Emma’s shoulder.
“I lost you once,” he whispered. “I won’t lose you again.”
But downstairs, hidden inside Victoria’s purse, her phone lit up with one unread message:
“If Richard survived, use the baby.”
May you like
And the sender’s name was…
The Nanny.
