Chapter 3: Maria's Greatest Secret
Several weeks later, Emily visited Maria at the small apartment the housekeeper had rented for nearly twenty years.
She carried flowers.
"I owe you my life."
Maria smiled gently.
"You owe me nothing."
Emily hesitated before asking the question that had haunted her.
"Why did you risk everything?"
Maria walked toward an old wooden cabinet.
Inside sat a faded photograph.
It showed a young woman smiling beside another pregnant woman.
Emily's breathing stopped.
The younger woman was her late mother.
"My mother knew you?"
Maria nodded.
"We were best friends."
Years earlier, after Emily's father died, Maria had secretly promised Emily's mother she would always watch over her daughter.
Even after becoming a maid in the family home, Maria never broke that promise.
"I couldn't save your mother from cancer."
Her eyes filled with tears.
"But I refused to lose you too."
Emily embraced her.
May you like
For the first time since childhood...
she felt truly safe.
