Chapter 1 - Who Touched My Sister?
“You’re nothing but a servant.”
Victoria Vale seized Elena’s red uniform at the shoulder and ripped it downward.
Fabric tore beneath the crystal chandeliers.
The sound silenced the entire rooftop restaurant.
Elena stumbled beside the VIP table, one arm crossing her chest to hold the ruined uniform together. Her face burned as wealthy guests stared from beneath the warm lights.
Beyond the glass walls, Manhattan glittered against the night sky.
Nathan Vale, Victoria’s son and chief executive of Vale Crest Hotels, remained frozen beside his wineglass.
He had brought Dante Moretti to the restaurant to secure the investment that could save their family empire.
Now his mother was publicly humiliating a waitress in front of the most feared man in the city.
Victoria did not seem concerned.
She believed power flowed in only one direction.
From wealthy people toward everyone beneath them.
“Apologize,” she ordered.
Elena’s eyes filled with tears.
But she did not kneel.
The torn collar slipped farther.
A silver locket fell from beneath her uniform and swung against her skin.
The Moretti crest caught the chandelier light.
Dante’s chair crashed backward.
He stood so quickly that two of his security men reached inside their jackets.
His eyes locked onto the locket.
Then onto Elena’s face.
“Elena?”
She looked at him through tears.
Her shaking fingers opened the pendant.
Inside was a faded photograph of two children beside a marble fountain.
A boy with dark hair.
A smaller girl wearing the same locket.
Victoria forced a laugh.
“Dante, she’s just a waitress.”
He crossed the room.
Without touching Elena unexpectedly, he removed his black jacket and held it open.
She accepted it and covered herself.
Dante stepped between her and Victoria.
No one in the room breathed normally.
Elena glanced toward the security camera above the service station.
Its red light was blinking.
“Then call the police,” she said.
Dante looked at her.
She expected anger.
Perhaps violence.
Instead, he nodded to his security chief.
“Preserve every camera. Nobody deletes anything.”
The restaurant manager activated the emergency alarm.
Two security officers entered with a tablet showing Victoria tearing Elena’s uniform.
Police lights appeared beyond the glass doors.
Dante’s voice dropped into something colder than shouting.
“Who touched my sister?”
Victoria stepped backward.
Nathan stared from the locket to Dante.
The Moretti investment he had spent six months pursuing had just disappeared.
But Elena had not taken a job inside Vale Crest merely to serve champagne.
She had entered the building because her dying foster mother left her one name connected to the night she vanished.
May you like
Vale.
👉 The locket revealed Elena’s identity, but the reason Victoria wanted her humiliated was hidden inside a folder Elena had copied from Nathan’s private office.
