Chapter 3
1629 Words
*Title ng Chapter:*The Maid in the Boardroom
*Kain Corp. 47th Floor. 7:58 AM.*
Hindi ako natulog.
Paano ako matutulog sa kwarto na katabi ng opisina ni Damian Kain?
Every time I closed my eyes, I heard his voice. “I trust you.”
Trust. Siya na hindi nagtitiwala kahit kanino, bigla akong pinagkatiwalaan.
Hindi ko alam kung matutuwa ako o matatakot.
At exactly 8:00 AM, may kumatok.
“Miss Morales?”
I opened the door. It was the same man in the black suit from last night.
“Mr. Kain wants you in the boardroom in ten minutes,” he said. “There are clothes for you on the bed.”
Clothes?
I turned. On the bed was a black dress suit. Not maid uniform. Expensive. Tailored.
And a pair of heels.
“Umm… I’m not—”
“Ten minutes, Miss Morales.”
The door closed.
I stared at the suit.
This was a test. Damian wanted to see if I could blend in with his world.
I took a deep breath and got dressed.
---
*8:10 AM. Kain Corp Boardroom.*
The room went silent when I walked in.
Twelve board members. All men. All in their 50s and 60s. All staring at me like I was a cockroach that crawled onto their marble table.
Damian sat at the head of the table. He didn’t smile when he saw me. He just nodded.
“Sit,” he said, pointing to the chair beside him.
The empty chair.
The one that belonged to his right hand.
I sat. My heels clicked against the floor. Too loud.
“Gentlemen,” Damian said. “This is Luna Morales. My new consultant for Project Omega.”
“Consultant?” One of the board members, a fat man with a red face, scoffed. “She looks like she should be serving coffee.”
I kept my face blank.
“She saved Project Omega last night,” Damian said calmly. “While you were all sleeping.”
That shut them up.
Damian turned to me. “Tell them what you found.”
I stood. My legs were shaking, but I didn’t let it show.
“Three backdoors,” I said, my voice steadier than I felt. “Line 4473, 8819, and 9901. All installed through KleanTech’s cleaning access. All designed to leak data to an outside server every 12 hours.”
“And the outside server?” Damian asked.
I pulled up the file on my phone and connected it to the projector.
The screen lit up with a map.
A red dot blinked in Shanghai.
“Selina Kain was selling Project Omega to WeiTech,” I said. “Our biggest competitor.”
The room exploded.
“Selina?!” The fat man slammed his hand on the table. “That’s impossible!”
“It’s not,” Damian said. “We have video proof. Security footage. And Luna stopped her.”
All eyes turned to me again.
This time, they weren’t looking at my clothes.
They were looking at me.
“How do you know this?” another board member asked. He was younger, maybe 40s, with sharp eyes. “You’re cleaning crew. You’re not IT.”
“I used to be,” I lied. “Before KleanTech.”
“And why are you here now?” the fat man asked. “Why not report to IT?”
“Because your IT team missed it,” I said bluntly. “Three times.”
Silence.
Damian hid a smile behind his hand.
“Miss Morales will be working directly with me until Project Omega launches,” Damian said. “Any objections?”
No one objected.
Not after that.
---
*10:30 AM. Damian’s Office.*
“You did good,” Damian said once the door was closed.
He was loosening his tie, looking less like a CEO and more like a human for once.
“Thanks,” I said, sitting down. My feet hurt from the heels.
“You lied in there.”
I froze. “What?”
“About KleanTech. You knew more than you said.”
I shrugged. “I told you what you needed to know.”
Damian walked around his desk and leaned against it, arms crossed.
“You’re not just a maid, Luna.”
“And you’re not just a CEO,” I shot back. “We all have secrets.”
He studied me.
“You know who I am, right?” he asked quietly.
“Damian Kain. 33 years old. CEO of Kain Corp. Net worth 4.2 billion dollars. Hates his family. Doesn’t do relationships.”
His eyebrow twitched. “You googled me.”
“No. I live in your building. I clean your office. I know your coffee order. Black, no sugar. You take calls at 2 AM. You don’t sleep.”
Damian was quiet for a long moment.
Then he said, “You’re dangerous.”
“You’re the one who gave me a suit.”
He laughed. It was a short, surprised sound. Like he didn’t expect to laugh.
“You should wear that more often,” he said. “You look… different.”
“Different how?”
“Like you belong here.”
I looked away. Because I did belong here.
This building was supposed to be mine.
“My grandfather built Kain Corp,” Damian said suddenly.
I kept my face neutral. “I know.”
“He kicked my mother out when she was 18. Said she wasn’t good enough for the Kain name.”
My hands clenched under the table.
“I didn’t know that,” I lied.
“Now I’m CEO. And I’m not letting anyone take it from me.”
“Not even family?”
Damian’s eyes darkened. “Especially family.”
The air between us felt heavy.
He didn’t know. He didn’t know I was the family he was talking about.
The granddaughter Victor Kain erased.
“Why are you telling me this?” I asked.
“Because you’re the only person in this building who hasn’t lied to me yet.”
I almost laughed.
If only he knew.
“Get some rest,” Damian said, standing up. “We have a lot of work tonight.”
“I can’t rest. I need to—”
“Rest, Luna. That’s an order.”
He walked to his office door and held it open.
I stood and walked past him.
For a second, we were too close. I could smell his cologne. Clean. Expensive.
He smelled like the life I was supposed to have.
“Damian?” I said before I could stop myself.
“Yeah?”
“Why do you hate Selina so much?”
His jaw tightened.
“Because she’s the reason my mother is dead.”
---
*2:17 AM. Penthouse Office.*
I couldn’t sleep.
So I did what I always did when I couldn’t sleep: I worked.
Damian’s computer was still logged in. He’d given me access earlier.
“Don’t do anything stupid,” he’d said.
I was about to do something very stupid.
I typed in a code I hadn’t used in years. A code my brother taught me when I was 14.
Within seconds, I was inside Kain Corp’s main server. Not Project Omega. The real one.
The one with all the family records.
I searched for two words: Victor Kain.
Hundreds of files popped up.
I opened the first one.
_Last Will and Testament of Victor Kain._
My heart stopped.
I scrolled down.
And there it was.
_To my granddaughter, Luna Marie Morales, I leave 51% of Kain Corp…_
51%.
I owned this company.
The room tilted.
I owned the building I was cleaning. I owned the office I was sitting in.
I owned Damian Kain’s job.
“Luna.”
I jumped.
Damian stood in the doorway. He wasn’t wearing a suit. Just gray sweatpants and a white t-shirt. He looked younger. Real.
“What are you doing?” he asked, walking closer.
I slammed the laptop shut. “Nothing.”
“Luna.”
“I couldn’t sleep.”
He looked at me, then at the laptop.
“You were in the main server,” he said. It wasn’t a question.
I said nothing.
Damian sighed and ran a hand through his hair.
“I knew you weren’t just a maid,” he said quietly. “But I didn’t think you were a hacker.”
“I’m not a hacker.”
“Then what are you?”
I opened my mouth.
And I almost told him.
I almost said, “I’m your niece. I’m Victor Kain’s granddaughter. I own 51% of your company.”
But I didn’t.
Because if I did, he’d look at me differently. He’d see me as a threat. Not as Luna.
“I’m just a girl who’s good with computers,” I said instead.
Damian didn’t look convinced.
He walked over and sat on the edge of his desk, right in front of me.
“You know,” he said, “when I first saw you last night, I thought you were going to blackmail me.”
“I was.”
He smiled. “Now I think you’re going to ruin me.”
“Maybe I will,” I whispered.
His eyes flicked to my lips for half a second.
Then he stood up.
“Get some sleep, Luna,” he said. “For real this time.”
He walked out, closing the door behind him.
I exhaled.
I was in too deep.
And the worst part?
I didn’t want to get out.
Because for the first time in my life, someone looked at me and didn’t see a maid.
Damian Kain saw me.
And I was terrified of what would happen when he found out the truth.
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*End of Chapter 3*
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- Writer
