Chapter 2 - The Freezing Water
Inside the vast, tiled laundry room, a tiny three-year-old girl stood barefoot on a small wooden stool beside a deep metal wash basin.
It was Nora Carter. She wore a simple pale-blue cotton dress with a small white apron tied around her waist, her long light-brown hair held in a loose ponytail with a faded blue ribbon. Her tiny bare feet gripped the damp edge of the stool for balance.
Plunged into a basin of ice-cold water was one of Luca’s expensive, custom-tailored white dress shirts. A dark smear of blue ink from an open fountain pen had stained the cuff.
Nora was scrubbing the heavy cotton with all the strength in her small body. Her tiny hands were bright red from the freezing water, shaking with exertion and cold.
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"Please… come off," Nora whispered to herself, her sweet voice trembling as she rubbed the fabric furiously. "Mr. Luca needs this shirt."
Standing outside in the shadow of the doorway, Luca felt a strange, sharp pang in his chest. A powerful boss whose command made hardened men tremble was watching a tiny, barefoot child fight a stain on his clothes in freezing water.
