THE MAID'S FORCED VOW

I had polished the same marble floor for three years without Damon Cross ever learning my name. That should have told me something. It didn't, not until the day my phone rang during my shift, and the voice on the other end changed everything. "We have your brother." Four words. That was all it took to make the cloth slip from my hand and the whole world tilt sideways. For a moment I couldn't move, couldn't breathe, could only stare at the phone pressed against my ear like it belonged to someone else's life. "Who is this?" My voice came out steadier than I felt, which surprised me. Years of staying invisible in this tower had taught me one thing, at least. How to keep my face still while everything underneath it caved in. "Doesn't matter," the voice said. "What matters is what happens to Micah if you don't listen very carefully." My knees found the edge of a chair before I fell. Micah. Nineteen years old, all elbows and bad jokes, the only family I had left since our mother died. He'd texted me that morning. Stuck late at the library, don't wait up. I hadn't thought twice about it. I should have. "What do you want?" I whispered. "Not from you," the voice said. "From him." There was only one man in this building whose name carried enough weight to matter. "I don't have access to Mr. Cross," I said. "I'm the maid." "Not for long," the voice said, almost amused. I pressed my back against the wall, trying to steady my breathing. My mind raced through every possibility. A prank. A mistake. Someone who had the wrong number, the wrong family, the wrong life to threaten. But Micah's laugh echoed in my memory, and dread settled into my stomach like a stone. "Let me talk to him," I said. "Prove he's actually with you." There was a pause, then a rustle, then my brother's voice, shaking and small. "Elena? Elena, I'm sorry, I don't know what's happening." The line went dead before I could answer. I sat frozen, staring at a phone that had just rearranged my entire life in under a minute, my hands trembling so hard I nearly dropped it.