“I didn’t play because I wanted a husband.”
A few people gasped.
Nobody spoke to Cassian Voss that way.
Elena continued before courage abandoned her.
“You challenged every woman in this room. Everyone laughed when I walked toward the piano. I wanted them to stop laughing.”
Cassian studied her.
“Did they?”
Elena looked around.
Vivian was furious.
Julian looked devastated.
Adrian was smiling.
Hundreds of wealthy strangers stared at Elena as if she had transformed before them.
“Yes,” she said.
Cassian stepped closer.
“Then you won.”
“I didn’t ask for the prize.”
Something flickered in his eyes.
Amusement.
Respect.
Maybe both.
Cassian extended his hand.
“Then consider it an invitation instead.”
Elena stared at his hand.
“To what?”
“Dinner.”
Several guests laughed.
Not cruelly this time.
Elena almost did too.
But Vivian suddenly spoke.
“Before everyone turns this maid into some fairy-tale princess, perhaps Julian should tell you who she really is.”
Elena froze.
Julian’s expression became desperate.
“Vivian.”
She smiled.
“No. I think this is fascinating.”
Cassian slowly turned.
Vivian slipped her arm through Julian’s.
“Tell them, darling.”
Julian said nothing.
So Vivian did.
“He knows Elena very well.”
Elena felt the old wound opening.
Vivian looked directly at her.
“Because before Julian chose me…”
She lifted the enormous diamond on her left hand.
“…he was apparently in love with her.”
The ballroom erupted in whispers.
Cassian’s face changed.
Only slightly.
But Elena saw it.
Julian stepped toward her.
“Elena, I can explain.”
For the first time that evening, Elena laughed.
There was no humor in it.
“You had four years to explain.”
Julian stopped.
Cassian looked between them.
“Four years?”
Elena wished she could disappear.
But Julian said the words that guaranteed she could not.
“We were engaged.”
Silence.
Cassian’s gaze dropped briefly to Julian’s hand.
Then to Elena.
Vivian’s smile vanished.
“You were what?”
Julian realized what he had done.
“Vivian—”
She slapped him.
The sound cracked through the ballroom.
Then she turned to Elena.
“This is your fault.”
Elena stood.
“No. Whatever is happening between you has nothing to do with me.”
“You humiliated me.”
“You humiliated me before I ever touched the piano.”
Vivian’s eyes flashed.
Cassian stepped between them.
“That will be enough.”
Vivian stared at him.
Even she knew not to challenge Cassian openly.
Elena gathered her apron.
Her hands were shaking again.
Cassian noticed.
“Where are you going?”
“Back to work.”
“You just played a concerto that three professionals refused to attempt.”
“And I still have tables assigned to me.”
A surprised laugh moved through the room.
Cassian did not smile.
“Elena.”
She turned.
“Yes?”
“You forgot something.”
“What?”
“My invitation.”
For several seconds they simply looked at each other.
Then Elena said, “Ask me again when there aren’t three hundred people watching.”
Cassian’s mouth slowly curved.
It was the first genuine smile anyone in the ballroom had seen from him all night.
“I will.”
Elena walked away.
But before she reached the service doors, Adrian Falk called after her.
“Miss Marlow.”
She turned.
He crossed the ballroom carrying a card.
“I teach twelve students worldwide.”
Elena stared at him.
“I’m not looking for—”
“I know.”
He placed the card in her hand.
“I currently have eleven.”
Elena stopped breathing.
Adrian nodded toward the piano.
“You belong there.”
She looked down at the card.
When she looked up again, Julian stood twenty feet away.
His eyes were fixed on her.
Not with embarrassment now.
With something far more dangerous.
Regret.
And Elena Marlow had learned long ago that regret could make people do terrible things.
She slipped Adrian Falk’s card into her apron.
Then she left the ballroom.
She did not see Cassian turn toward Julian.
She did not hear the coldness in his voice when he asked one quiet question.
“What exactly did you do to her?”
Julian Hale’s face turned white.
Chapter 3 – The Price of a Secret
Elena finished her shift at 2:13 in the morning.
She knew the exact time because she had spent the final hour checking the clock every few minutes while pretending not to notice the whispers following her through the Ashcroft estate.
The maid who played the Impossible Concerto.
The maid Cassian Voss had promised to marry.
The maid who had once been engaged to Vivian Ashcroft’s fiancé.
By tomorrow, Elena knew, videos would be everywhere.
She hated the thought.
She had spent years becoming invisible.
Invisible people survived.
Invisible people paid rent.
Invisible people did not have wealthy strangers examining every mistake they had ever made.
Elena changed out of her uniform in the staff room and put on jeans, a cream sweater, and the old brown coat she had owned for six winters.
When she stepped through the servants’ entrance, a black car was waiting.
She stopped.
The rear door opened.
