Filed to story: Second Chance Mafia Bride Drama Novel
She curled her lips into a cold, knowing smile, but didn’t bother intervening. Two hours later, Nicholas returned.
The moment she heard the front door open, Serena’s eyes lit up. She hurried out to meet him, steps light and eager.
Nicholas was wheeled in, Logan and several other staff members following behind.
“You’re back!” she called, her face bright with a genuine smile as she ran up to him.
For a fleeting moment, something gentle and unguarded flashed in Nicholas’s usually cold, steely eyes.
He grunted in acknowledgment, then spotted her suitcase-the one she’d brought from the Greco family-still sitting by the couch. He frowned. “You just got back?”
Serena shook her head, pouting playfully. “I’ve been waiting for you for over two hours!”
The words were sweet enough to make anyone’s heart melt, but Nicholas’s expression darkened as his gaze flicked to the suitcase again. “You’ve been back this long, and your things are still downstairs? The staff wouldn’t listen to you?”
His tone was sharp, a hint of menace underlying it. The nearest maid blanched, clearly panicking. “Ma’am…”
She shot a pleading look at Serena, desperate for her to explain.
It wasn’t that she didn’t want to bring the luggage up-it was just that Alice had taken over the guest room, and she honestly had no idea where to put it.
Serena glanced at the maid, recognizing her as one of the quiet, well-behaved ones who never sided with Alice’s crowd. “It’s not her fault-“
She didn’t even get the words out before Alice descended the stairs.
Surprisingly, Alice was dragging a suitcase of her own, looking for all the world like she was about to leave.
The moment she saw Nicholas, Alice’s face lit up and she hurried over. “Mr. Salerno!”
But as soon as she caught sight of Serena standing beside him, her smile faltered and her eyes shone with unshed tears.
Serena narrowed her eyes, wary-what game was Alice playing now?
“Alice, you’re back?” Logan, who was on familiar terms with her, asked casually. “Where are you off to?”
“I…” Alice’s voice trembled with wounded pride as she shot a quick, accusing glance at Serena. “Someone here doesn’t want me around, Mr. Salerno. I think it’s better if I just move out.”
Alright, now she knew exactly what Alice was up to.
Serena didn’t bother to step in, simply standing aside with a relaxed air, as if she were watching a play unfold.
“Moving out? What happened?” Logan shot a glance at Nicholas, and when Mr. Salerno stayed silent, he turned to ask, genuinely surprised.
“Someone doesn’t want me here,” Alice replied, casting another wounded look at Serena, her eyes brimming with restrained tears. “She said I’m just the maid’s daughter, that I don’t belong…”
The moment those words left her lips, several of the staff turned their gazes on Serena, their faces darkening.
Most of them had known Alice for years and got along well with her.
And Alice’s pointed gaze made it clear to everyone exactly who she meant.
“Alice is Mary’s daughter. Whether she belongs here or not, that’s for Mr. Salerno to decide,” Thomas, one of the staff, said coldly, shooting Serena a glare.
Serena remembered him-one of Nicholas’s most loyal men, young and brash, clearly infatuated with Alice. In the end, Alice had been his downfall.
Under the sharp, unfriendly stares of the group, Serena remained composed. She looked straight at the man in the wheelchair and asked with a sweet, lilting tone, “Darling, I am the lady of Rosewood Manor, aren’t I?”
No matter how many times she called him that, the endearment always sent a ripple through the room.
Nicholas met her clear, striking gaze, his eyes darkening a shade. He leaned back in his wheelchair, utterly at ease. “Of course.”
“Then who is she?” Serena’s slender finger pointed at Alice.
No one dared reply, uncertain what Serena was getting at-except for an honest maid who answered timidly, “Ma’am, Alice is Mary’s daughter.”
A moment later, Serena’s voice drifted through the room, light and casual-
“Oh, Mary’s daughter. So, in Rosewood Manor, does that make her more important than the lady of the house?”
A flicker of unease crossed Alice’s face.
She opened her mouth, but Nicholas spoke first.
“Who told you she outranks you?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” Serena cocked her head slightly. “If that’s not the case, how could she so brazenly lay claim to my bedroom and toss my things into the guest suite?”
“So I, as the lady of Rosewood Manor, am expected to stay in the guest room, while a maid’s daughter gets to take the second master suite? Is that really how things are run here?”
The words hung in the air, and for a moment, the entire room fell silent.
Thomas and the others looked at Alice in shock-they hadn’t known any of this.
Alice’s composure faltered, panic flashing across her face. “Mr. Salerno, I-I didn’t know she was your wife…”
“Then you must not have very good hearing,” Serena cut her off coolly. “Both of the people next to you called me ‘Mrs. Salerno’ loud enough for the whole house to hear. And you mean to say you didn’t catch it?”
Alice froze, her face paling.
She bit her lip, turning to Nicholas with a look of pitiful grievance. “Mr. Salerno, you promised me a reward if I did well in my exams. I just wanted that room…”
That suite was the closest to Nicholas’s own. She’d set her heart on it for a reason.
Serena’s eyes narrowed sharply.
Well, well-so that was it. A reward? Nicholas always kept his word. What if he really had promised her?
She immediately turned to Nicholas, seizing the moment before he could respond. “Darling, you’re not just going to stand by and let a servant’s daughter bully your own wife, are you?”
Her tone was imperious, yet somehow endearing, her beautiful eyes wide with expectation as she waited for his answer.
Alice looked absolutely livid.
She absolutely hated it when people called her the maid’s daughter.
Nicholas met the girl’s anxious eyes and hesitated, silent for a moment.
Serena grew even more nervous, her bright eyes widening.
At last, he spoke. “I won’t.”
Relief flooded her, and a clear joy sparkled instantly in her eyes.
Alice blurted out in disbelief, “Mr. Salerno?!”
“I did say you’d get a reward,” Nicholas replied coolly, “but that doesn’t mean I’ll grant every unreasonable request. Like asking the lady of Rosewood Manor to give up her bedroom so you can move in, while she gets shipped off to the guest room.”
The room fell into dead silence.
Alice’s face flushed, then paled, then flushed again-caught between shock and embarrassment. Clearly, she hadn’t expected Nicholas to refuse her.