Bullied Cinderella - Hollie Hutchins Page 0,4
and the exercises she was expected to lead him in each afternoon. Angela had every detail of his day planned down to the tiniest thing, not so much for his benefit - but as a test for the new caregiver.
“Surely you can understand why each and every specification is so important,” Angela concluded with a disgusted look of discernment. “If it’s too much for you, we can always find someone else to fill the position. We’ve been very charitable in giving you a chance at all.”
“No, not at all,” she answered quickly. “I won’t let you down.”
“Hmmph. It will take more than your meaningless words to convince me. I’ll be watching you very closely. One misstep and I’ll have you back to the auction house before you can blink, and you’ll be expected to pay back every penny of what you earned up until then.”
“Yes ma’am. Thank you.”
She spouted off a number of other insults and doubts as she finished giving Lucia her instructions, then she sent her on her way to dive straight into the rest of our grandfather’s morning routine. By then, Jorge and Dario had gathered to watch the spectacle. Each of us were staring at what we could make out of her ass in that hideous frock as she walked away, wheeling German’s chair in front of her.
Mother clapped her hands loudly to snap us out of it, making Jorge and Dario jump. My nerves were a bit more hardened than theirs, so I managed not to show how much she startled us.
“I’ll be expecting each of you to help me ensure she’s doing her job,” she demanded in a shrill voice. She did her usual fainting motion back onto the nearest chair, feigning tears. “Your poor father would still be here today were it not from the stress of managing such incompetent people.”
“There, there, Mother,” Dario rushed to her side. He was always a sucker for her dramatic little shows. “We’ll see to it that everything is done well.”
“Just don’t let it distract you too much,” she said sternly, noting the way Jorge was still watching Lucia through the window. “Oh, I do wish the three of you would find some nice, high-class women to marry off to. To think, all three of you clinging on to your bachelorhood like some kind of trophy...It’s disgraceful!”
One by one, we weaseled our way out of another one of her marriage lectures and busied ourselves with other things. While Angela intimidated most everyone else around the house, our submission to her was really all an act. If we let her think she was in control of us, she wouldn’t make as big of a fuss. We had been raised to believe that keeping your mother and family happy was one of the most important tasks in a man’s life.
But the same could not be said for the rest of the lowly people working around us, which Dario and I took great joy in tormenting. Mother was right. Our father would probably still be here today had he not toiled away trying to squeeze a decent job out of his employees. We didn’t want the same to happen to us, so we liked to keep everyone on their toes.
That day I was taking a walk through the laundry quarters to see if they were keeping up with our latest instructions on how to do the linens. We had made up some ridiculous demands about natural products that could be used to make everything softer and smell better. Just as I had hoped, I watched the maid nearly burst into tears as she pulled the fresh sheets from the dryer. They were now dyed bright green. She attempted to hide them, but it was too late. I arrived just in time.
“What’s going on here?” I barked, shoving her out of the way to see the green jumbled mess behind her.
“I don’t know what happened, Senor Leonardo!” she sobbed. “I did just as you told me to! I got the freshest greens from the garden and put them in the wash!”
I did my best not to laugh out loud at her stupidity for falling for such a thing. Some of the older maids watched from nearby. I could feel their eyes burning into me with hatred. They likely knew what the concoction would do, but didn’t dare warn the poor girl for fear of their own jobs.
“You obviously did something wrong! Just look at these! They’re ruined! You can be certain