Chapter 2 - The Engagement That Ended in Silence
Daniel ordered Martin to call the family physician.
Claire stepped toward him.
“You are embarrassing me over a servant.”
Daniel slowly looked at her.
The room became colder.
“You cut a pregnant woman’s hair for entertainment.”
“She violated the appearance standards.”
“There is no standard that permits cruelty.”
Claire glanced toward the guests.
Her confidence depended on their approval.
For the first time, nobody met her eyes.
“Daniel, we can discuss this privately.”
“You made it public.”
He turned toward the orchestra.
“Stop the music.”
The musicians lowered their instruments.
Daniel removed the engagement ring from Claire’s hand before she could react.
She stared at her bare finger.
“What are you doing?”
“Correcting a mistake.”
Her face changed.
“You cannot end our engagement because I disciplined an employee.”
“I am ending it because tonight confirmed what I spent months refusing to admit.”
Claire looked toward her parents.
Neither moved.
The Carver name carried more power than the Whitlock fortune.
“Daniel, please.”
His expression remained unreadable.
“Leave.”
“This is my celebration.”
“Not anymore.”
Two security men approached.
Claire’s humiliation became panic.
She pointed at Hannah.
“You are choosing her over me?”
Daniel glanced at the pregnant housekeeper beneath his jacket.
“I am choosing decency over you.”
The words destroyed the last of Claire’s composure.
“You do not even know her.”
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
“You are wrong.”
Hannah looked up.
Their eyes met.
Something in Daniel’s expression unsettled her.
Recognition.
Not attraction.
Not curiosity.
Recognition.
Before she could ask, pain seized her abdomen again.
She gasped.
Daniel immediately lifted her into his arms.
The guests parted.
Martin hurried ahead, opening the doors toward the private medical wing.
Claire shouted behind them.
“She is pretending.”
Daniel stopped.
He did not turn around.
“If anything happens to her child, you will answer for every second you delayed her care.”
Claire became silent.
Inside the private clinic, Dr. Samuel Pierce examined Hannah while Daniel waited outside.
Martin stood beside him.
“You should tell her,” the steward said.
“Not tonight.”
“She deserves to know.”
“She deserves to be safe first.”
Inside, Hannah listened to the rapid beat of her daughter’s heart.
The sound made her cry.
Dr. Pierce smiled gently.
“The baby is stable.”
“Then why did it hurt?”
“Stress and exhaustion. You need rest, hydration, and less time standing.”
Hannah almost laughed.
Rest was expensive.
“I cannot stop working.”
The doctor hesitated.
“That may no longer be a problem.”
Before Hannah could question him, Daniel entered.
He had rolled up his sleeves.
Without the jacket and formal distance, he looked younger.
Still dangerous.
But human.
“The baby is safe,” Hannah said.
Relief crossed his face.
It vanished almost immediately.
“I am glad.”
She tightened his jacket around herself.
“Thank you for helping me.”
“You should never have needed help in my home.”
Hannah looked toward the closed door.
“Claire will blame me.”
“Claire is no longer welcome here.”
“She is your fiancée.”
“She was.”
Hannah stared.
“You ended your engagement?”
“Yes.”
“Because of me?”
“Because of who she revealed herself to be.”
Daniel placed a chair beside the bed.
“There is something else.”
Hannah sensed the weight in his voice.
“What?”
He looked toward the hospital bracelet around her wrist.
“What was your husband’s name?”
The question surprised her.
“Thomas Brooks.”
Daniel lowered his eyes.
“Did he ever mention me?”
Hannah’s throat tightened.
“Once.”
Thomas had worked nights as an accountant for a shipping company.
Months before his death, he came home frightened and asked Hannah whether she knew the Carver name.
She had said no.
He told her to forget the question.
“Why?” she asked.
Daniel’s expression hardened.
“Thomas worked for one of my companies.”
Hannah sat straighter.
“He never told me.”
“He discovered money being stolen by a senior manager.”
Her hands moved protectively over her stomach.
“What does that have to do with his accident?”
Daniel remained silent too long.
Hannah understood before he spoke.
“You do not believe it was an accident.”
“I do not know.”
“But you suspected.”
“Yes.”
“And you hired me because of Thomas?”
“Martin recognized your name during the application.”
Hannah looked toward the steward.
He appeared near the doorway, guilt in his eyes.
“You knew who I was?”
Martin nodded.
“Mr. Carver asked me to make certain you had work and medical coverage.”
Hannah felt betrayed all over again.
“I thought I earned this job.”
“You did,” Daniel said.
“We only ensured you were considered.”
“You watched me struggle without telling me anything.”
“I was trying to identify who Thomas exposed.”
“While I cleaned your floors.”
Daniel accepted the anger.
“Yes.”
Hannah removed his jacket and placed it beside her.
“I do not want charity.”
“This is not charity.”
“What is it?”
“Responsibility.”
Daniel stood.
“Thomas died after trying to protect my company from someone inside it.”
He placed a black folder on the table.
“And the person he was investigating attended the engagement tonight.”
Hannah stared toward the ballroom.
Claire’s cruelty was no longer the greatest danger inside Carver Mansion.
May you like
Someone among the elegant guests might have been connected to her husband’s death.
Continue to the next part: Hannah will open Thomas’s hidden evidence file and discover that Claire’s family may have had a reason to silence her husband long before the engagement celebration.
