A humble maid who had spent years serving a powerful millionaire family was suddenly accused of stealing an invaluable piece of jewelry. – tamy

Part 1 – Fired

Clara Alvarez had dust in her lungs and lemon cleaner on her hands most days of her life, but she never minded it.

The Hamilton estate sat at the top of a hill in Westchester, New York—forty minutes from Manhattan, a world away from everything else. High hedges, iron gates, white columns. The kind of place people slowed down to stare at when they drove past.Clara had been coming up that driveway for eleven years.

She knew every creak in the floorboards, every smudge on the glass doors, every stubborn stain on the white marble in the foyer. She knew which light bulbs flickered and which faucets dripped. She knew that if you didn’t jiggle the handle on the downstairs guest bathroom, it would keep running all night.

Mostly, she knew the people.

Adam Hamilton, forty-three, tech investor and million-dollar smile when he remembered to use it. Widowed three years now, still wearing his wedding ring out of habit.

His son, Ethan, seven years old, more dinosaur than boy most days, all elbows and questions and sudden hugs.

And Margaret.

Adam’s mother.

The matriarch.

Queen of the house even though she didn’t technically live there—she kept a luxury condo in the city, but she was at the estate so often Clara sometimes forgot which address was officially hers.

Margaret Hamilton was the kind of woman who noticed when someone moved a vase three inches to the left.

She wore pearls in the kitchen and drank her coffee like it had offended her.

Clara respected her.

She also feared her.

It was a Tuesday morning when everything changed.

Clara arrived at 7:30 a.m. like always, the September air cool enough to make her wrap her cardigan tighter around herself as she walked from the bus stop up the long driveway.

Inside, the estate was quiet. The staff entrance opened into the mudroom, then the kitchen—a huge, gleaming space with marble counters and stainless steel appliances that Clara wiped down four times a day.

She hung her coat in the small staff closet, slipped on her indoor shoes, tied her hair back, and checked the handwritten list on the counter.

Margaret’s list.

Every day, a new one.

TUESDAY: