Chapter 3 - Secrets in the Soil
Over the next two weeks, Maya worked tirelessly from dawn until dusk.
She rose at five in the morning, nursing Emma and placing her safely in a portable playpen she had rigged up out of discarded wooden crates and soft blankets inside the tool shed. While Emma napped or played with her wooden rattle, Maya threw herself into restoring the gardens.
She pruned the overgrown roses, cleared suffocating ivy from ancient stone walls, and began the delicate process of repotting the priceless Japanese Bonsai. Her hands became calloused, her boots caked with dirt, but the estate’s gardens began to transform under her touch. The pale, dying leaves of the rare plants began to regain their rich green color.
Every afternoon, Julian would walk through the gardens. He never spoke to her at length—he simply walked past with his hands in his pockets, his sharp hazel eyes observing every pruned branch, every freshly turned bed of soil, and every vibrant leaf.
And every afternoon, he noticed Emma.
The baby had become a fixture in the gardens, sitting peacefully in her carrier strapped to Maya’s chest or resting in the shade of a weeping willow tree while Maya worked. Emma had a sweet, cheerful disposition, cooing softly at the butterflies and waving her tiny hands at the falling autumn leaves.
One Tuesday afternoon, a heavy rainstorm rolled in unexpectedly over the estate.
Maya was deep in the lower terrace, trying frantically to cover a bed of delicate imported orchids with plastic tarps before the heavy rain could crush their stems. Rain soaked through her thrift-store jacket, plastering her dark hair to her face. She had tucked Emma beneath a canvas awning near the stone wall, but the wind was picking up, driving rain sideways.
"Damn it," Maya cursed softly, her fingers slipping on the cold ropes as she tried to secure the tarp.
Suddenly, a massive black umbrella appeared over her head, shielding her from the downpour.
Maya looked up, startled.
Julian was standing beside her, holding the umbrella over her with one hand, his expensive navy wool coat getting soaked by the rain. He didn't seem to care.
"You're going to freeze," Julian said, his voice quiet over the sound of thunder.
"The orchids... they're fragile, Mr. Pierce," Maya panted, wiping rain from her eyes. "If the rain hits them directly, the blooms will drop."
Julian looked at the flowers, then down at Maya’s shivering form, and finally over at the canvas awning where Emma was beginning to whimper in the cold wind.
Without a word, Julian handed the heavy umbrella to Maya. He walked over to the awning, picked up Emma’s portable carrier with infinite care, and wrapped his own heavy wool coat completely around the baby’s carrier, shielding her from the icy wind.
Maya stood frozen, holding the umbrella, her heart stopping at the sight.
The cold, ruthless young billionaire was standing in a torrential downpour, holding a tiny, fragile baby tucked securely inside his five-thousand-dollar coat, looking down at the child with an expression of such profound, raw gentleness that it took Maya’s breath away.
"Come inside," Julian ordered, turning back toward the grand glass conservatory. "Now."
Inside the warm, glass-enclosed sanctuary of the conservatory, Julian set Emma’s carrier down on a velvet bench. He unwrapped his coat, checking the baby. Emma was completely dry, looking up at Julian with wide blue eyes before letting out a soft, joyful squeak and reaching her tiny fingers toward his gold cufflink.
A soft, almost invisible smile touched the corner of Julian’s lips. He reached out with one finger, letting the baby grasp it with her tiny hand.
Maya stood nearby, drenched and shivering, holding a towel Lily had brought her. "Thank you, Mr. Pierce. You didn't have to do that."
"I don't like seeing things left out in the cold," Julian said, his voice dropping low, laden with an unspoken weight. He turned to face Maya, his hazel eyes intense. "You’ve worked harder in two weeks than my entire grounds crew has in two years. The Bonsai tree has produced four new buds."
Maya’s face lit up with a radiant smile. "Really? You saw them?"
"I did," Julian said, his gaze lingering on her face, lingering on the brightness of her eyes when she smiled. For a second, the heavy, dark air between them seemed to vanish. "You have a rare gift, Maya."
Before Maya could respond, the heavy glass doors of the conservatory burst open.
Evelyn Ward marched in, accompanied by a heavy-set man in a rumpled suit—her nephew, Richard. Evelyn’s face was twisted in triumph.
"Mr. Pierce!" Evelyn announced loudly. "I apologize for interrupting, but we have an emergency. An audit of the estate’s maintenance accounts was just completed, and we have discovered a massive theft."
Julian’s posture instantly went rigid, the warmth vanishing from his eyes as he turned into the cold master of the estate once more. "What are you talking about, Evelyn?"
Richard stepped forward, pointing an accusing finger directly at Maya. "Three thousand dollars worth of rare orchid bulbs and specialty fertilizer went missing from the main storage shed yesterday, sir! And we found this in the gatekeeper’s lodge during a routine safety inspection!"
Richard pulled a plastic bag from his coat and slammed it down on the table. Inside were three sealed packages of the estate’s expensive, high-grade organic fertilizer and a small leather pouch containing five hundred dollars in cash.
Maya turned pale. "What? That’s impossible! I’ve never seen those packages! I didn't steal anything!"
"Lies!" Evelyn snapped, stepping toward Maya with terrifying aggression. "You brought your poverty into this home, girl! You were desperate, paying off old debts! You’ve been sneaking supplies out of the shed at night! I demand she be arrested immediately, Mr. Pierce!"
Maya looked at Julian, her heart sinking into a abyss of horror. "Mr. Pierce, please... look at me. I swear on my daughter’s life, I didn't touch those things! Someone put them in my cottage!"
May you like
Julian looked at the plastic bag, then at Richard’s sweating face, then at Evelyn’s gleaming, triumphant eyes, and finally at Maya, who was trembling, clutching Emma to her chest, looking at him with desperate pleading.
The silence in the conservatory was deafening.
