“Shhh… sweetheart,” Maya whispered, scooping the baby up without thinking. Lily was warm and trembling, her head pressing into Maya’s shoulder like she had found the one place she belonged.
Maya sat down on the rug, rocking her gently, humming a lullaby she hadn’t sung in years. Slowly, the baby’s cries softened. Within minutes, Lily’s breathing was steady and deep.
Exhaustion pulled at Maya, but she didn’t dare put the baby down. So she lay back on the rug, Lily resting on her chest, both of them wrapped in the soft rhythm of each other’s breathing. Somewhere in that quiet moment, Maya drifted off.
She didn’t hear the heavy footsteps until they were right beside her.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
The voice was sharp enough to slice the air in two. Maya jolted awake to see Nathaniel Blake looming over her, his face carved in cold fury.
Before she could answer, he yanked the baby from her arms. The sudden emptiness was like being punched.
“Filthy. Disgusting,” he snapped. “That’s something you don’t touch. You serve it. You watch it. But you don’t ever hold it.”
“No, please,” Maya said, pushing herself up on her elbows. “She just fell asleep. She wouldn’t stop crying—”
“I don’t care,” he barked. “You’re the maid. Not the mother. Not anything.”
The moment Lily left her arms, the baby screamed. Her little hands clawed at the air, her sobs shrill and panicked.
