Chapter 3 - The Mask Slips
For a moment, I couldn’t speak. Then I removed my jacket and wrapped it around her shoulders. “You didn’t tell me anything.”
She looked confused. I glanced at the garbage scattered across the stone. At the bags. At her hands. At the terrace above us. “I saw it myself.”
Before she could answer, hurried footsteps came down the terrace stairs. Beatriz appeared seconds later. And just like that, the woman I had heard laughing into the phone vanished. Her posture changed. Her expression softened. Her voice became warm.
“My God.” She hurried toward us with her arms open. “You’re home!” She gave me a shocked smile. “Why didn’t you tell me you were coming back early?”
I didn’t return the smile. Her eyes flicked toward Isabella. Then toward the torn garbage bag. Then back to me. She understood immediately.
“Oh, this looks terrible.” Beatriz laughed nervously. “But it isn’t what you think.”
I said nothing.
“She wanted to help.” Beatriz gestured toward Isabella. “She’s been asking for more responsibility lately.”
My eyes dropped to my daughter’s blistered hands. “This is responsibility?”
Beatriz’s smile tightened. “It was just a small chore.”
“A small chore?”
Her expression shifted. Only slightly. But I saw it. Fear. She turned toward Isabella. “Go upstairs and clean yourself up.”
Isabella started to move automatically. I stepped between them. “No.”
Beatriz stared at me. “What?”
“She stays with me.” I reached for Isabella’s hand. My daughter looked up at me, uncertain. Then she slipped her small fingers into mine.
Beatriz followed as I led Isabella toward the villa. “We need to talk privately,” she said.
“We will.”
“When?”
May you like
I opened the door and looked back at her. “After I understand exactly what has been happening inside my house.”
For the first time since the day I met Beatriz, all the confidence disappeared from her face. And she looked afraid.
