Chapter 2 - THE WOMAN BEHIND THE MASK Rain hammered the windows as police officers took Victoria away.
Inside Mateo's private study, Isabella sat beneath a warm lamp while Dr. Aris treated the bruises around her neck.
She kept looking at her hands.
They were the hands of a servant.
Scarred.
Rough.
Small.
They had spent years washing crystal glasses, scrubbing marble floors, carrying laundry, and surviving insults.
Now Mateo was telling her she was the heir to a fortune.
It felt like a cruel joke.
"Why me?" she whispered.
Mateo stood near the window.
"Because your parents were Lorenzo and Katerina Valerius."
Isabella shook her head.
"My mother was Rosa."
"Rosa was your nanny."
The words shattered something inside her.
Rosa.
The woman who had raised her.
The woman who had worked herself to exhaustion.
The woman who had died six months earlier in a freezing apartment.
Isabella remembered Rosa's final days.
Her trembling hands.
Her weak smile.
The way she had pressed the silver necklace into Isabella's palm.
"Never take this off."
At the time, Isabella thought it was simply a sentimental gift.
Now she understood.
Rosa had been protecting a secret.
"Why didn't she tell me?"
"Because knowing could have gotten you killed."
Mateo explained the history.
Twenty years ago, the Valerius estate burned.
The official story was an electrical accident.
But Lorenzo had enemies.
One of them was Silas Thorne.
Silas had spent decades trying to seize the Valerius fortune.
Victoria was his daughter.
And according to the evidence, Victoria had discovered Isabella's identity.
Instead of killing her immediately, she brought her into the estate as a maid.
Close enough to watch.
Close enough to control.
Close enough to destroy.
Isabella's stomach turned.
"She knew who I was."
"Yes."
"All this time?"
"Yes."
Outside, Victoria was placed inside a police vehicle.
She looked up toward the second-floor window.
Her eyes found Isabella.
Even through the rain, Isabella understood the message.
This isn't over.
Mateo's phone rang.
SILAS THORNE.
He answered.
"Mateo."
Silas's voice was calm.
Too calm.
"Release my daughter."
"She assaulted Isabella."
A pause.
Then Silas laughed.
"Isabella?"
Mateo's expression hardened.
"You know exactly who she is."
Another silence.
Then Silas said the words that changed everything.
"I burned the Valerius family once."
Isabella's blood ran cold.
Silas continued.
"I can do it again."
Mateo ended the call.
He looked at Isabella.
"We leave now."
"Where?"
"Geneva."
"Why?"
May you like
Mateo touched the silver key.
"Because your parents left something behind."
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