The wind from Lake Michigan rattled the tall glass doors of the dining room.

Inside, the air smelled of roasted duck, expensive perfume, and beeswax candles.

Twenty of Chicago’s most powerful people sat around the long mahogany table.

I kept my head down, holding the silver tray with steady fingers.

My feet ached inside my cheap black shoes.

It had been six months since my husband died, and this job at Mercer House was all that kept us afloat.

“Watch the lace, Claire,” Vanessa Whitmore murmured, her voice dripping with ice.

She wore a silk gown the color of bruised plums.

Her diamond engagement ring caught the candlelight as she gestured to her plate.

I leaned in to clear her empty soup bowl.

My sleeve brushed against a crystal goblet of Pinot Noir.

It wobbled, then tipped.

A dark red pool bloomed across the white linen tablecloth, inches from her dress.

“You clumsy idiot,” Vanessa hissed.

She stood up so fast her heavy chair scraped loudly against the oak floorboards.

Before I could pull back, her hand swung.

The slap cracked through the silent room like a pistol shot.

My cheek burned, and my vision blurred for a second.

I kept my eyes on the floor, my hands shaking against the silver tray.

No one at the table moved.

No one breathed.

Then, a small voice broke the silence from the heavy velvet curtains near the service door.

“Don’t hit my mommy.”

My heart stopped.

Emma stood in the gap between the drapes.

She looked tiny in her faded yellow overalls and white sneakers.

Her dark curls were messy, and she held a small wooden block in her hand.

“Emma,” I whispered, panic rising hot in my chest.

She was not supposed to be here.

She was supposed to be asleep in the staff breakroom.

Vanessa glared down her nose at the three-year-old child.

“What is that dirty child doing in here, Margaret?” Vanessa demanded, looking toward the kitchen door.

Margaret Bell, the head housekeeper, stood frozen by the sideboard.

Her face was pale, but her hands were clenched tight at her sides.

She looked ready to step between Vanessa and my daughter.