Rainwater dripped onto the marble floor as Ethan Vale stepped inside wearing a black suit soaked from the storm.
Silence swallowed the room.
Mrs. Carter forced a nervous smile.
“S-Sir… you’re home early—”
“Don’t.”
His voice was calm.
Too calm.
Sophia ran toward him instantly, crying.
Ethan dropped to his knees and wrapped his arms around his daughter carefully after seeing her swollen hands.
The moment he touched her trembling fingers…
Something inside him broke.
“Who did this to you?”
Sophia looked back toward the housekeeper silently.
Mrs. Carter’s face turned pale.
“She’s lying,” the woman stammered quickly. “She’s dramatic, I was only teaching her discipline—”
Ethan pulled out his phone.
Pressed play.
The room filled with Mrs. Carter’s voice:
“Then cry quieter.”
The woman froze completely.
Every insult.
Every threat.
Every second had been recorded.
“You said I’d never see it,” Ethan whispered.
Mrs. Carter backed away in panic.
“Sir please… I need this job…”
But Ethan wasn’t listening anymore.
He gently picked Sophia up into his arms.
“You’ll never touch my daughter again.”
Police sirens suddenly echoed outside the mansion.
Mrs. Carter’s knees nearly gave out.
Sophia buried her face into her father’s shoulder as he carried her toward the staircase.
For the first time in a long time…
She finally felt safe.
But just before Ethan disappeared upstairs, he stopped walking.
Because on the security footage still open on his phone…
A second hidden figure had appeared upstairs in Sophia’s bedroom.
Watching them.
Smiling.
And the bedroom door slowly began closing by itself…
