For several seconds, nobody moved.

Vanessa’s hand had finally fallen to her side.

The elegant curve beneath her crimson gown was no longer what everyone had believed it was.

A murmur swept through the mansion.

Alessandro stepped closer.

“What is that?”

Vanessa backed away.

“It’s nothing.”

But her voice was shaking now.

Emma clutched her mother Claire’s dress, watching the adults with wide eyes. Then, almost as if she suddenly remembered something important, she reached into the tiny pocket of her dress.

And pulled out a small silver key.

Claire’s face went white.

“Emma…”

The little girl held it тιԍнтly.

“She gave me this.”

Alessandro’s eyes narrowed.

“Who gave you the key?”

Emma looked toward Vanessa.

Then she pointed upstairs.

“The lady.”

Vanessa stopped breathing.

Alessandro turned toward the staircase.

“What’s upstairs?”

Vanessa said nothing.

He looked at Claire.

Claire immediately lowered her eyes.

She had spent three years trying to disappear inside this house.

But now Alessandro understood something.

Claire hadn’t been invisible.

She had been watching.

“Take me upstairs,” he ordered.

Vanessa suddenly grabbed his arm.

“No.”

Alessandro looked down at her hand.

For the first time, fear was visible on her face.

“No one goes upstairs.”

That was enough.

Alessandro pulled his arm free.

“Then I’ll go alone.”

He climbed the staircase.

Emma watched him disappear around the corner.

Then she quietly whispered to her mother:

“Daddy said we weren’t supposed to tell.”

Claire froze.

Daddy?

Her daughter had just said a word that could change everything.

And upstairs, behind a locked bathroom door, Alessandro was about to discover why Vanessa’s fake pregnancy had been hidden for three years.