Chapter 4 - The Mask Slips
Bárbara dropped her espresso cup. It shattered on the Persian rug, dark liquid soaking into the intricate fabric. Her face drained of color as she stared at Ricardo. "Baby... what... what are you doing here? You're supposed to be on a flight."
"I was in the basement," Ricardo said, his voice terrifyingly calm. "All night. Watching the security cameras."
Panic flashed in Bárbara’s eyes, but she quickly masked it with indignation. She puffed out her chest, trying to salvage her power. "Good! Then you saw her! You saw how disrespectful this maid is to me! She turns your daughters against me, Ricardo. I was just trying to discipline them. Someone has to step up since you're never here!"
"Don't you dare talk about my daughters," Ricardo warned, taking a step toward her. "I heard everything you said. I saw you turn off Regina's light. I saw you threaten to throw the only person who comforts them out into the street. I heard you call them 'wretched'."
Bárbara’s lip quivered with rage. Her sweet, polished facade completely dissolved, revealing the ugly truth beneath. "They are spoiled brats, Ricardo! They cry over everything! I am trying to build a life with you, a high-society life, and they are holding us back with their pathetic trauma. You need a wife, not a ghost of a dead woman haunting your halls!"
Lupita gasped softly, turning her face away from the cruelty of the words.
Ricardo felt a cold fury settle into his bones. For two years, he had allowed this toxic woman into his home because she looked good on his arm at corporate galas. He had prioritized his image and his grief over his own flesh and blood. Never again.
"Pack your things," Ricardo said, his voice dropping to a dangerous whisper. "Excuse me?" Bárbara sneered. "You're choosing the help over me?" "I am choosing my family," Ricardo replied. "You have exactly one hour to get your designer bags out of my house. If you are not gone by then, I will have the bodyguards physically remove you and leave you on the sidewalk."
Bárbara screamed in frustration, a shrill, piercing sound. She cursed at him, called him a fool, and threw a heavy crystal paperweight at the wall, shattering it. She stormed out of the study, her heels stomping aggressively up the stairs.
Ricardo stood in the quiet wreckage of the room, breathing heavily. He turned back to Lupita. She was trembling slightly, not from fear, but from the sheer adrenaline of the confrontation.
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"I am so sorry," Ricardo said, his voice cracking. He looked at her not as an employer, but as a man pleading for forgiveness. "I am so sorry I let her do that to you. I am so sorry I let her do that to them. I have been entirely blind."
Lupita took a deep breath, regaining her composure. "You weren't blind, Mr. Ricardo. You were just looking in the wrong direction."
