His hand stayed under her chin, frozen in place, water dripping from her hair onto his fingers.

Her eyes lifted slowly, meeting his for the first time.

Recognition hit him like a wave he wasn’t braced for.

«…Mom?»

The word barely made it out of his mouth. One breath, one syllable, and the whole room seemed to stop breathing with him.

The maid’s lips trembled. She didn’t answer — she couldn’t. Years of silence sat behind her eyes, and now all of it was spilling out at once, unspoken but unmistakable.

Behind them, the blonde woman lowered her hand from her cheek, her composure cracking wide open as she looked between the two of them, piecing together something she clearly never wanted him to know.

«You knew,» he said, not turning around, his voice low and shaking. «This whole time. You knew who she was.»

Silence.

Then the blonde woman said the only thing that could make this worse.