Chapter 10 - Awakening in Velvet
Warmth.
Elena Miller opened her eyes to the soft glow of a crackling marble fireplace. She wasn't lying on her damp, spring-broken mattress. Beneath her was a bed draped in Egyptian cotton sheets and a thick down comforter. The ceiling above was vaulted, framed in polished dark walnut beams.
For a moment, she panicked, gasping for breath, thinking she had died.
"Mommy!"
A small weight collided with her chest. Elena cried out, wrapping her arms around Mia. Her daughter was clean, her hair brushed and smelling of lavender soap, wearing a pair of soft fleece pajamas that were brand new.
"Mia... oh God, Mia..." Elena wept, pressing kisses into the girl's hair, her hands tracing her child’s cheeks to ensure she was real. "Where are we? What happened to the man with the gold tooth?"
"Mr. Gabriel took care of him," Mia said proudly, sitting up and pointing toward the foot of the bed.
Sitting in a leather armchair beside the fire was Gabriel Vance. He had changed into a charcoal suit, holding a porcelain cup of black coffee. He looked at Elena not with pity, but with deep, unyielding respect.
"Drink," Gabriel said, gesturing to a tray on the bedside table with hot bone broth and freshly baked bread. "Small sips first. Your body needs to remember how to eat."
Elena looked at the lavish room, then down at her clean bandages, and finally at Gabriel. Her lips trembled. "Mr. Vance... I only clean your lower offices at night. You... you don't know me."
"I know that for seventy-seven days, my building was spotless," Gabriel replied calmly. "And I know that while my associates stole millions from the city, you were starving so your daughter could survive."
He stood up, walked to the bed, and set a heavy mahogany box on the nightstand. He opened the lid.
Inside sat stacks of crisp hundred-dollar bills, bundled together, alongside a thick legal folder stamped with a golden wax seal.
"Five thousand, four hundred and thirty dollars and thirty cents," Gabriel said. "Plus back interest."
Elena stared at the money, terrified. "I... I can't take this. Julian Sterling... his men said if I took a single dollar, they would take Mia away from me. They said the police belong to him."
Gabriel gave a quiet, humorless chuckle.
"Julian Sterling no longer owns anything in this city, Elena. In fact, he is currently signing over his properties to a trust fund in your daughter's name."
Elena’s breath hitched. "Why? Why would you do this for us?"
May you like
Gabriel looked into the fire, his expression darkening as long-buried ghosts resurfaced.
"Because twenty-five years ago, my mother scrubbed floors in this same city. And no king came to save her."
