Chapter 7 - THE SECRET OF GRACE
The woman in the passage didn't step out into the study. She remained in the shadows, her hand resting against the cold brick wall for balance. Her eyes shifted from Roman’s pale face down to the six-year-old girl standing beside him in the cream dress.
A faint, bittersweet smile touched the woman’s pale lips as she looked at Mia and the blue shawl wrapped around the baby.
"She has her mother's chin," the woman whispered, her voice raspy and dry. "And her mother's heart... working herself to the bone to protect what she loves."
Roman’s head snapped toward Mia, then back to the woman in the wall. "Grace? You know Grace?"
Grace was the mansion’s primary housekeeper—a quiet, hardworking woman who had served the estate for six years, keeping her head down, asking for no favors, and raising her two daughters in the staff quarters behind the carriage house.
"Grace didn't find this job by accident, Roman," the woman in the passage said softly, taking a slow, painful step closer to the threshold. "I sent her here six years ago. When I realized what my brother was planning to do with the estate records... I had to make sure someone loyal was inside these walls."
Roman’s eyes narrowed as the pieces began falling into place with terrifying speed. "Grace isn't just a housekeeper. She's your daughter."
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The woman nodded once, a tear cutting a clear path through the dust on her cheek. "And these children... are my granddaughters."
Mia looked between Roman and the old woman in the dark passage, her young mind struggling to understand the connection. "Mommy said... Mommy said the lady in the wall was a guardian angel."
