“No,” she cuts in, her voice sharp as a razor.“You never do.”Her voice is very steady.“You think things always go exactly how you plan them,Mr.Knight?”She spits his name out like it’s poison in her mouth.
He looks at her.He doesn’t know what she’s going to say.She bares her teeth.“You ruined my life, and now you think you can walk into my daughter’s home?”
“I was just trying to—”
She steps closer, not letting him speak.“Shut your disgusting, dirty little mouth.”
Oh my God.
Mom!
I can’t believe what I’m seeing and hearing.
Paul looks like he’s lost control.
“You think you can silence me now?”she fires back.“You touched me.You threatened me.Me, a housekeeper on your great big estate.All I wanted was to earn a decent living and live a simple life, but your penis got in the way,again.”
She said that?
My mouth falls open.
She doesn’t stop.“You need to control yourself,” she spits.“Men like you, vile, dirty, filthy pigs, you think you can take whatever you want and walk away untouched.”Her hands are shaking now, but her voice doesn’t break.“You touched me, and then you touched me again, and when I slapped you, you punished me.You think there are no consequences.But I believe in karma.And yours will come for you one day.”She swallows, eyes never leaving his face.
He scoffs like it’s nothing.“I protected my family.”
“Family?” My mother spits the word out.“You don’t know the meaning of family.Your poor wife.Your poor, sad wife.I prayed for her sometimes.For her soul.For her salvation.God knows how that woman must have suffered.”
“You never even met—” he starts.
“No,” she says easily.“But the other housekeepers did.They would all talk about you.”She points a finger at him.“You are a pig, Mr.Knight.You might be a fancy man living in expensive houses with lots of money, but deep down inside, you are nothing more than a disgusting, vile little rat.”She laughs harshly.“Calling you a pig is too gracious to pigs.As it is to rats.You are the devil himself.”
He opens his mouth, but my mom isn’t done yet.“You framed me.You accused me of something I didn’t do.You planted a necklace and lied that I took it.”
He stares quietly.“You should have—”
“I have not finished speaking!”she thunders.
Oh my God.I’m so glad I’m recording this.
“You made sure nobody would hire me.You made sure I had to leave the state and go far away.You made sure nobody would believe me.”
“I didn’t want you spreading lies.”
“Lies?You didn’t want me telling the truth.”Her voice is thick and low.“You didn’t want me telling the other housekeepers what really happened.The truth is, there was nothing I could have done, and you knew it.I was weak, and we had no money.We were at your mercy.But not anymore.”Now she looks vindicated.
He looks at me then, and for the first time, I see fear in his eyes.I wait for him to say something, but he’s out of words.What can he say in the face of such honest truth?
“Maya,” my mom’s voice softens.“Why is this pig here?”
I almost choke at her casual reference to him.“I—”
“You haven’t told her,” he says, a hint of amusement in his tone.
I swallow.I haven’t told her anything about Zach, and now I pray she won’t lose it, or show her disappointment.I hope she won’t give that man, thatpig, the satisfaction of a win.
“Mamá,” I say, heart lurching against my ribcage.“I’m … I’m seeing his son.Zach.You remember Zach?”
Hesitation fills her eyes, then disappointment.
