Chapter 1 - THE WOMAN BEHIND THE MASK
Dominic tilted his head as though no one had ever asked him such a question.
“No,” he said.
“But you look like you want to.”
Layla should have apologized.
She should have lowered her eyes and slipped back into the ballroom before he recognized her voice.
Instead, she walked toward the window.
The Chicago River glimmered far below, black water cut by silver reflections.
Dominic stood beside her without speaking.
For several minutes, they watched the city move beneath them.
The silence felt strangely honest.
“You hate these parties,” Layla said.
“I host them.”
“That was not my question.”
He glanced at her mask.
“You are very brave when I cannot see your face.”
“Maybe you are easier to talk to when you cannot see mine.”
Dominic smiled.
It was not the cold expression he used during meetings.
It was small and almost uncertain.
He told her he had inherited a collapsing company from a father who trusted no one.
Layla told him she had recently buried the only parent she had left.
Neither of them shared names.
Neither of them admitted they already knew each other.
When music drifted through the library doors, Dominic offered his hand.
Layla stared at it.
“I do not dance.”
“Neither do I.”
They danced anyway.
One song became two.
Two became whispered confessions beside the bookshelves.
Dominic kissed her as the clock reached one in the morning.
Layla should have stopped him.
Instead, she kissed him back.
For one night, she was not the invisible maid carrying someone else’s glasses.
She was simply a lonely woman in the arms of a lonely man.
When morning came, she left before he woke.
She returned to work two days later wearing her gray uniform.
Dominic passed her in the hall without recognition.
Layla told herself that was a mercy.
Three months later, she stood in his office holding a crystal whiskey glass when the nausea struck.
The glass slipped from her fingers.
It shattered across the marble.
Dominic looked up from the eighty-million-dollar contract.
His expression turned instantly cold.
“What happened?”
“I am sorry, Mr. Gallow.”
Layla bent to gather the pieces.
The room tilted.
She pressed one hand against the floor and the other against her abdomen.
Dominic misread the movement as carelessness.
“That glass belonged to my grandfather.”
“I will pay for it.”
“With what?”
The question cut deeper than he intended.
Layla’s face burned.
Dominic dropped several bills beside her.
“Take the money and leave.”
She looked up.
“You are firing me?”
“I cannot keep someone who collapses while carrying glass.”
She wanted to tell him.
She wanted to pull the ultrasound photograph from her pocket.
Then his fiancée entered.
Vivienne Cross wore a white coat, diamond earrings, and a smile designed for cameras.
Her gaze landed on Layla’s protective hand.
The smile vanished for only a second.
It was long enough for Layla to notice.
Vivienne already knew.
And before Layla left the penthouse, Vivienne sent a message to a number saved without a name.
May you like
The maid is pregnant.
Find out who the father is.
