​Seeing the mistress arrive, April didn’t hesitate for a single millisecond. Her survival instincts kicked into overdrive.

​In a split second, she forced her eyes to well up with tears. Her facial features contorted in pure, unadulterated terror, and she collapsed into a trembling, sobbing heap on the floor, letting out a heavy, breathless cry.

​"Madam! Please, I didn’t take it!" April wailed, her voice cracking beautifully with despair as she clutched her own chest. "I just... I have such a terrible fever, I feel like I’m going to die! I just wanted to ask Matilda for formal permission to go to the pharmacy and get some medicine so I don’t collapse! Why... why won’t she let me go get treated? She wants the guards to strip me naked! I didn’t do anything wrong, Madam! I just want to live!"

​She sobbed hysterically, burying her face in her hands, secretly watching Madam Morgan’s reaction through the cracks of her fingers.

Matilda’s face contorted into a desperate, panicked mask. Her heart was beating violently against her ribs.

April’s words had struck her right in her weakest spot. But she was a seasoned bully, and her first instinct was to completely crush the threat before it could speak again. 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

If she could prove April was a thief right now, anything the girl said afterward would look like the desperate, vengeful lies of a disgruntled servant.

​Pointing a shaking, crooked finger down at April, Matilda turned to the mistress and shrieked, "Madam! Look at her! She’s just putting on a pathetic show because she doesn’t want to be searched! I am certain she is the one hiding the young mistress’s necklace! We must get rid of this filthy thief once and for all!"

​Matilda’s voice cracked with anxiety, her eyes darting toward the hallway. She had to ensure April was thrown out today. She was entirely confident that April had stolen the rock—after all, why else would this usually silent, broken girl suddenly try to sneak out of the estate gates the very morning a priceless heirloom vanished?

​Madam Morgan’s cold, heavily made-up eyes locked onto April’s trembling form. Her expression twisted into disgust.

"You don’t want to be searched?" she said, her voice dropping into a dangerous, icy tone. "How dare you? A worthless servant setting conditions in my house?"

​"No, Madam... please, that’s not what I meant," April sobbed out beautifully, wiping her nose with the sleeve of her faded uniform, the picture of helpless terror. "I only said... sniff... I only said I didn’t want to be touched by the male guards. I am a woman, Madam. I just want... I want a female to search me, please. I have nothing to hide from you, Madam!"

​Madam Morgan let out a sharp, impatient breath. She didn’t care about April’s dignity, but she cared deeply about her own time, and the screaming match was grating on her nerves. She turned her icy glare toward the two burly men.

​"Get out," Madam Morgan commanded the guards flatly.

​The two men immediately bowed and stepped out of the linen room, closing the door behind them.

​Madam Morgan then stepped closer, her designer heels clicking sharply against the floorboards until she stood right over April.

"Come over here," she ordered coldly. "I will search you myself. But know this, April: if I find my daughter’s necklace on you, you are dead. Do you understand me? Dead."

​Those words were not a hollow threat. April knew from her past life that Madam Morgan wouldn’t hesitate to have a servant quietly disappear if they crossed the line she had drawn.

A cold shiver from her memories passed through April, but beneath her trembling facade, she was secretly thanking her lucky stars for the boundless spatial dimension and that Madam Morgan would be the one to prove she was clean with her own mouth.

They could search her now and even tear her room apart but they would not find anything. The physical laws of this world didn’t apply to her anymore.

​April stood up, keeping her head low and her shoulders shaking as Madam Morgan roughly stepped forward.

​The mistress didn’t hold back. She aggressively pulled down the thin fabric of April’s uniform, dug her manicured acrylic nails into the deep apron pockets, and even reached inside her bra and her panties to ensure nothing was taped to her skin.

​There was absolutely nothing. Not a single coin, let alone a priceless jade rock.

​Madam Morgan stepped back, her face flushing with irritation as she realized she had just spent her valuable time groveling through a servant’s underwear for nothing.

She slowly turned her head, her gaze shifting from April to Matilda. The air in the room instantly dropped below freezing.

​"Matilda," Madam Morgan hissed, her voice vibrating with pure, unadulterated rage. "You disrupted the entire morning shift for this? You have been getting on my last nerve since yesterday."

​Matilda’s breath hitched, her face instantly draining of whatever color it had left. "M-Madam, I truly believed—"

​"Shut up!" Madam Morgan snapped, taking a step toward her. "My daughter is upstairs weeping over her lost heirloom, the entire estate is in a crisis, and you are wasting my precious time chasing your petty, paranoid grudges against a sick maid! Do you want me to dock three more months of your salary? Because I will gladly make you work the rest of this year for free!"

​Matilda stood entirely speechless, her lips trembling as she swallowed her own spit. The realization that she had just lost all her leverage—and nearly ruined her standing with the mistress—left her completely hollowed out.

She knew that if she argued or tried to mention the romance book now, Madam Morgan would only see it as another pathetic excuse and fire her on the spot.

​"I... I am deeply sorry, Madam," Matilda whispered frantically, bowing her head so low her chin touched her chest. "It was my oversight. I apologize completely. It will never happen again."

Madam Morgan let out one final, disgusted hiss as she turned on her heel and marched out of the room, muttering, "Useless hag."

​The heavy door slammed shut behind her, leaving a suffocating silence in the linen room.

​April slowly pulled her uniform back together, adjusting the faded fabric with entirely steady hands. The trembling in her shoulders vanished instantly.

She turned her head toward Matilda, who was still frozen on the spot, breathing heavily, her face filled with a mix of shock and bitter defeat.

​April stepped closer, leaning in until her breath brushed past the older woman’s ear.

​"I will get you back for this someday, Matilda," she whispered, her voice a bone-chilling, deadpan murmur that sent a physical shiver down the housekeeper’s spine. "Just you wait."

​Before Matilda could even gather the breath to snap back, April turned and walked away, her posture straight and entirely unbothered.