He Chose The Maid Over The Heiress Chapter 08

He Chose The Maid Over The Heiress Chapter 08

Kimberly POV 

The house was quiet the next morning–the silence of a tomb, or perhaps a cathedral. 

I sat in my office at the headquarters of Miller Holdings, where the glass walls overlooked the jagged skyline of Manhattan. 

I felt like I was sitting on top of the world, but the air up here 

was thin. 

My computer screen was a mosaic of open tabs. 

Sarah walked in, placing a cup of steaming black coffee on my 

desk. 

“He tried to get in,” she said softly. 

I didn’t look up. “Which entrance?” 

“Main lobby. Security footage shows him trying his keycard for five minutes. Then he tried to argue with the front desk. Then… 

he cried.” 

“Show me.” 

She tapped her tablet, casting the video onto the wall monitor. 

There he was. Austyn. 

He was wearing the same suit from yesterday, now rumpled and stained. He was screaming at the receptionist, a young woman named Clara. He was slamming his plastic card 

against the reader, over and over again. 

He looked like a ghost trying to haunt a house that had already been exorcised. 

“Did he leave?” I asked. 

“Eventually,” Sarah replied. “He threatened to sue us. Then he asked Clara if she could lend him twenty dollars for a cab.” 

I took a sip of coffee. It was bitter, but to me, it tasted like. 

victory. 

“Send the footage to the legal team,” I commanded. 

“Harassment. Restraining order.” 

“Done.” 

My phone pinged with a notification from the school. 

Ms. Albright had been removed from the directory. The Board. had convened at midnight. Money talks, but Miller money. 

screams. 

She wasn’t just fired; she was blacklisted. She would be lucky. to find a job teaching in a prison. 

I opened the “Elite Parents” group chat one last time. 

It was silent. No one had posted since my departure. They were terrified. They knew that I had seen their complicity, their polite nods to the mistress, their whispers. 

I typed a message to the new school administrator: 

Ensure Lily is in a class with children whose parents. understand loyalty. I don’t want her breathing the same air as cowards. 

I closed the laptop. 

My private line rang. It was the Consigliere, an old man named Vinnie who had served my father. 

“Duchess,” he rasped. 

“Vinnie.” 

“We found the accounts he was using to pay for the apartment in the city. The one he kept for the girl.” 

“And?” 

“He missed rent yesterday. The landlord is evicting them. They are on the street, Kimberly.” 

“Good,” I said. 

Vinnie paused. “There is something else. He tried to sell 

information.” 

My hand tightened around the phone. “To whom?” 

“The Russians. He called a contact he met at one of your dinners. He offered them the shipping routes for the Jersey ports.” 

My blood ran cold. 

That wasn’t just theft. That was treason. That was an act of war. If he gave up the routes, my shipments would be seized. My men would be arrested. 

“Did he give them anything?” I asked, my voice tight. 

“No,” Vinnie said. “The Russians called us. They know better than to buy from a dead man. They wanted to know if we 

wanted him… handled.” 

I looked out the window. I saw the city that I ruled. I saw the bridges, the tunnels, and the dark water churning below. 

“No,” I said finally. “Not yet.” 

“Why?” Vinnie asked. “He is a rat.” 

“Because death is too easy,” I said. “Let him live. Let him starve. Let him see what the world looks like when he doesn’t have my light to stand in.” 

I hung up. 

I stood and walked to the window, pressing my hand against the cold glass. 

I was the Duchess. I was the Iron Heiress. 

But for a moment, I just wanted to be the girl who hadn’t married a monster.