Chapter 1 - The Heel
Vanessa Sterling lifted her six-inch heel toward Naomi Reyes’s face while two hundred guests watched.
“Get on your knees and fix my shoe,” Vanessa snapped.
Naomi caught the ankle before the pointed heel reached her cheek.
The ballroom went quiet. A champagne glass clicked against somebody’s wedding ring. Vanessa’s smile broke first, then her balance. Naomi held her steady, lowered the foot to the floor, and released her.
“Please don’t touch me again,” Naomi said.
“You little—” Vanessa lunged forward.
“Vanessa.”
The voice came from behind the orchestra. Alexander Whitmore, the man whose engagement party was supposedly being celebrated, crossed the marble floor so quickly that a waiter flattened himself against the wall. His gaze moved from Naomi’s trembling fingers to Vanessa’s twisted expression.
“What happened?” he asked.
“She attacked me,” Vanessa said instantly. “Your waitress grabbed me and tried to throw me down.”
“I saw the heel,” a woman whispered, then looked away when Vanessa turned.
Naomi could feel every eye in the room examining her uniform: pale-blue blouse, black vest, practical shoes she had bought secondhand. She had spent six months getting this job, enough to pay her mother's physical therapy bills. One more complaint would end it.
“I only stopped her from hitting me,” Naomi answered.
Vanessa drew herself taller. “You’re fired.”
Alexander looked past her. “You don’t employ her.”
A few guests gasped. That single sentence changed the temperature in the room.
Vanessa laughed once. “I practically own this place.”
“Then you should know who signs the payroll.”
His phone buzzed. He glanced at it, and the color drained from his face. The message contained a photo of an old hospital bracelet, a name handwritten in black marker, and four words: SHE KNOWS ABOUT LUCY.
Alexander raised his eyes to Naomi.
May you like
Naomi heard somebody behind her whisper that a servant should know her place. She had heard that sentence in a dozen forms all her life. Her answer was to stay on her feet. A camera flash burst across the chandelier light, and she understood that this would not stay inside the ballroom.
“Where did you get that bracelet?”
