Chapter 1 - The Birthday Cake
"Put that plate down, Sofia. You haven't earned the right to eat off it."
The words hit harder than the cold sauce running over Sofia's fingers. Her three-week-old daughter stirred against her chest. She adjusted the baby's head with one hand and kept scraping mashed potatoes into a trash bowl with the other.
Across the marble island, Elena Whitmore inspected the mess as though Sofia had deliberately ruined the birthday dinner.
"I didn't take your money," Sofia whispered.
"Then why did it disappear the day you came home from the hospital?"
Sofia wanted to scream. Instead she bounced her daughter, June, and tried to stop crying. She had been awake since three that morning. Her stitches still hurt when she stood too long. There were six housekeepers in this mansion, but Elena had sent every one of them home.
"Please let me put June down somewhere safe."
"Your child has a nursery upstairs. Unless you've sold the furniture, too."
The kitchen door swung open. Adrian Whitmore came through carrying a white birthday cake, its candles burning in an untidy rainbow. He was smiling until he saw his wife bent over the plates.
"What the hell is going on here?"
Sofia froze. Sauce dripped from her fingers onto her satin dress.
"Mom," Adrian said, setting the cake on the island, "what did you do to her?"
"Nothing she didn't bring on herself."
"She accused me of stealing money," Sofia said. Saying it out loud made her humiliation feel real.
Adrian looked at the piles of dirty plates, then at June. "You made her clean this while holding our daughter?"
"Don't be dramatic," Elena snapped. "I know what she did."
"You have no right to treat her like this."
Elena raised her phone. "Then explain what's on this phone."
On the screen was a security image of Sofia stepping into Elena's study at 2:14 a.m. Beside it sat a transfer confirmation for $480,000, supposedly authorized from Elena's private account.
Adrian's face changed. Sofia knew the photograph was real. She had gone into the study that night.
What she couldn't explain was the transfer, or why the image showed her wearing a coat that had been locked in storage since June was born.
Then Elena enlarged the picture. A second figure appeared reflected in the glass cabinet behind Sofia.
Before Adrian walked through the door, Elena had tipped the last serving dish over with two fingers. The crash made June flinch. Sofia had knelt instinctively to catch a falling plate, and pain shot across her abdomen. Elena saw her wince. She didn't ask if she was all right. She only told her that women who married into this family should learn how to keep a house. When Sofia mentioned calling Adrian, Elena set her own phone on the counter and said, 'He won't choose you over me.' Sofia had believed that for one terrible minute.
May you like
It was Adrian.
THE LAST CANDLE
