In a huge mansion in Greenwich, Connecticut, Emily Carter worked as a housekeeper. She was twenty-five years old: unassuming, hardworking, and quiet. She was the favorite maid of Mr. Nathan Carter, a thirty-year-old bachelor and CEO of a multinational corporation. Nathan was kind, but strict at work. The only thing he knew about Emily came from the gossip of the other staff: that, supposedly, Emily had been a “loose woman” in her rural West Virginia town.
Month after month, Emily sent almost her entire salary home. When the staff asked her where that money went, she replied, “To Johnny, Paul, and Lily.” So everyone concluded that Emily had three children out of wedlock.
Despite the rumors, Nathan fell in love with Emily. She cared for people in a different way. When Nathan fell gravely ill and was hospitalized for two weeks at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, Emily never left his side. She bathed him, fed him, and spent entire nights awake. Nathan saw the purity of her heart. “I don’t care if she has children,” he told himself. “I will love them as I love her.”
