Chapter 1 - THE WOMAN ON THE MARBLE FLOOR
“You.”
Celeste Vanderpool's voice sliced through the ballroom.
Fay Delacroix stopped so suddenly that the champagne glasses on her tray trembled.
“Miss Vanderpool?”
Celeste slowly rose from her velvet chair, staring at the dark stain spreading across her ivory gown.
“Look what you've done.”
Fay's stomach tightened.
“I didn't touch your glass, ma'am.”
The room fell quiet.
Celeste looked at her in disbelief.
“Are you calling me a liar?”
“No. I'm saying I didn't spill the wine.”
A woman near the table covered her mouth.
Someone else whispered.
Celeste's expression hardened.
“Get on your knees.”
Fay blinked.
“Excuse me?”
“You heard me.”
She pointed toward the marble floor.
“Apologize properly.”
Fay stood frozen.
She thought about the money she needed for Josie's medical appointments.
The overdue electricity bill.
The promise she'd made to Mrs. Odette that she wouldn't cause trouble.
But she also remembered something her mother had taught her.
Dignity wasn't something wealthy people could purchase from those who had less.
“I'm sorry your dress was stained,” Fay said quietly. “But I didn't cause it.”
Celeste stepped closer.
“You're nothing but hired help.”
Fay lowered her eyes.
That was when Celeste noticed the folded blue paper protruding from her apron pocket.
She snatched it.
“What's this?”
Fay's heart stopped.
“Please give that back.”
Celeste unfolded it.
A child's drawing.
Two crooked figures holding hands beneath a bright yellow sun.
She laughed.
“How touching.”
“Please,” Fay whispered. “My daughter made that.”
Celeste looked up.
“You have a child?”
“Yes.”
“And you brought this garbage into my engagement party?”
She dropped the drawing.
Then pressed one expensive shoe against the paper.
Fay gasped.
“Please don't.”
Celeste smiled.
“Then kneel.”
For one terrible moment, Fay considered walking away.
But Mrs. Odette stood near the service entrance, looking devastated.
Fay knew what losing this shift would mean.
Her little girl was waiting at home.
The medical bills weren't going anywhere.
So Fay slowly lowered herself onto the cold marble.
The room went silent.
Celeste smiled with satisfaction.
“Now stay there until I decide you've learned some manners.”
Fay stared at the damaged drawing beneath Celeste's shoe.
She didn't cry.
Not yet.
The engagement celebration continued.
Guests returned to their conversations.
The music resumed.
And almost everyone pretended the kneeling waitress didn't exist.
Almost everyone.
Across the ballroom, Mrs. Odette quietly took out her phone.
She sent one message.
Then waited.
Forty minutes later, Rafferty Cain returned from a business conversation in his study.
He stopped at the entrance.
His eyes moved across the glittering room.
Then settled on a woman kneeling beside the marble staircase.
Her hands rested in her lap.
Her face was pale.
And near her knees lay a crushed blue paper boat.
May you like
Rafferty stopped breathing.
Because twenty years earlier, another little blue paper boat had been the only thing that made him believe someone cared whether he lived or died.
