Chapter 5 - The Unbreakable Bond
Lily looked up from her sketchbook, her little hand reaching up to touch my cheek. "Clara stays here," she declared with four-year-old authority, pouting her lip. "She doesn't go to another house."
Leo let out a soft, genuine laugh—a sound I had never heard in the two years I had worked in this house. He dropped to one knee before us, bringing himself to our eye level.
"Lily is right," Leo murmured, looking at me with an intensity that made my heart do a sudden, erratic flip against my ribs. "The house is yours, Clara. But I am begging you not to live in it alone."
My breath caught in my throat. "What are you saying, Leo?"
"I am saying that I spent my whole life surrounded by people who smiled to my face while planning my downfall," Leo confessed, taking my rough, calloused hand into his massive, warm palm. "I thought softness was a weakness. But you showed me that real strength isn't guns or money. It’s the heart of a woman who protects a child at all costs."
He squeezed my hand gently. "I don't want a maid, Clara. Lily doesn't want a maid. We want you. Stay here with us. Not as a servant... but as the mistress of this house."
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Tears welled in my eyes, spilling over my lashes. For years, I had been the invisible one—the oversized maid people insulted, the woman everyone looked past. But looking into Leo's eyes, I didn't see pity. I saw reverence. I saw respect. I saw love.
"Yes," I whispered, a tearful smile breaking across my face. "I'll stay."
