Bullied Cinderella - Hollie Hutchins Page 0,9

arrived. I didn’t know what was happening, but I was certain she had something to do with this.

3

Leonardo

I was supervising some of the landscapers when the ambulances pulled up outside. I raced inside so fast that I beat them to the scene. Don German was seizing up in the corner of the room with Lucia standing over him in shock, ordering the others around in how they could help him until the medics arrived.

“Get out of the way!” I shouted as I stormed in to clear a path for them.

I grabbed Lucia by the arm and yanked her to the side, watching in a panic as they tried to clear his airways enough to get him on the stretcher.

“Let go of me!” she growled, trying to wriggle free.

I wouldn’t loosen my grip. Jorge and Dario had gathered and watched as they wheeled our grandfather away. Jorge immediately turned to us, seeing Lucia struggling against my hold on her.

“What did you do!?” he fumed. “What did you do to him?”

“Nothing!” she cried. “I was feeding him and...he just...I didn’t do anything! He started having some kind of reaction!”

“Bull shit! You’re his caretaker! This is your fault!”

The rest of the staff were taking in the whole scene with wide eyes. I couldn’t stand their laziness on top of everything else. They would take any excuse to get out of a few minutes of work.

“What are you all standing around for!?” I barked. “Get back to work!”

As they dispersed, I yanked Alicia into a nearby closet and threw her in, locking the door from the outside. The moment she was contained she began throwing herself against the door with her feet and fists, demanding to be let go.

Dario didn’t seem to like the way I was handling things and immediately started defending her. “Maybe we should wait and see what the doctors say before we start pointing fingers.”

“You saw him!” I argued. “He was obviously having an allergic reaction.”

Jorge nodded. “Peanuts. She probably put some in his food. She couldn’t wait to get out of here and figured if she killed him off, her contract would be terminated without her owing us any compensation.”

Dario shook his head, still unconvinced. “We don’t know that. We don’t have any proof.”

“Nonetheless, she’s staying in there until we know more,” I decided out loud before storming off into the kitchen.

The staff had busied themselves, knowing better than to be standing around idle when I came for them. I marched up to Greta who was chopping vegetables over the countertop in the middle of the room.

“What happened? What did he have for lunch?”

“Soup,” she shrugged innocently. “I prepared it myself, but...as you know, I have to turn it over to Lucia to feed it to him. She took the tray and carried it into the corner. I assumed she was getting his afternoon pills, but now...Now I fear I was wrong to trust her.”

She looked around to the others to back her up, but they just stared at their feet.

“Every one of you better start talking! If I find out anyone knew anything they didn’t tell me, you’ll be just as responsible as Lucia! You’ll all be fired or worse!”

Finally one of the younger girls made her way over to stand behind Greta. “Lucia is always saying how much she resents Don German. She hates working here. She said she’d do anything to get out of her contract.”

“That’s...that’s not true!” Another girl chimed in from the corner. “Lucia barely talks at all! She keeps to herself mostly! I’ve never heard her say anything like that!”

Greta glared at the girl, and the others soon followed suit. They didn’t like her going against their word, but I didn’t have time to sort through their stories. I spun on my heels and huffed off. Dario was quick to meet me outside the kitchen door and chase after me.

“Let’s just take a minute to calm down,” he pleaded. “At least wait until the doctors tell us more before we start throwing around accusations.”

“If he doesn’t survive this...I’ll kill her myself...with my own bare hands.”

We locked ourselves in one of the parlors to wait. The hours went by excruciatingly slow, with us mostly in silence, until finally, the phone rang. I pounced to answer it before any of the staff could. I released a huge sigh of relief as the doctor explained that Don German would be fine after some rest and more treatment. He did, in fact, have an allergic reaction to