The doctors at City General Hospital called it a cardiac malformation. Polite language that did nothing to soften the devastation. Rebecca left the hospital with empty arms and a body still prepared to nourish a child who no longer existed.

Medical bills, overdue rent, and her father’s mounting prescriptions pushed her to accept a position as a live in housekeeper at a mansion in Greenwich, Connecticut. The Stone estate stood behind iron gates and manicured hedges, a place where silence itself felt expensive.