Chapter 6 - The Dinner of Reckoning
The tension in the dining room became thick enough to choke on. Patricia stared at my untouched glass of scotch, her fingers tightening around the stem of her own wine glass until her perfectly manicured nails turned white.
"Julian, you aren't drinking," she noted, her voice dropping its warm, melodic tone, a sharp edge of irritation bleeding through. "Is something wrong with the scotch? I poured it from your private reserve."
"The scotch is fine, Patricia. It’s the additives I have an issue with," I said casually, leaning back in my chair and crossing one leg over the other.
Before she could respond, the service door opened, and Rosa stepped into the dining room, carrying a heavy silver serving tray containing the first course. Her head was bowed respectfully, her movements quiet and practiced.
"Ah, Rosa," I said, my voice cutting through the silence. "Set the tray down. And please, pull up a chair. I want you to join us for dinner tonight."
Patricia practically bolted out of her seat, her chair scraping violently against the floorboards. "Julian! Have you completely lost your mind? She is the domestic staff! You don't invite the housemaid to sit at our formal dinner table, especially not after what she’s been doing!"
"And what exactly has she been doing, Patricia?" I asked, my voice deadly calm, my eyes locked onto her face. "Why don't you enlighten me? Tell me all about how Rosa has been 'stealing' from me. Let’s lay it all out on the table."
"She’s a thief, Julian!" Patricia shouted, pointing an accusing, trembling finger at Rosa, who stood frozen by the sideboard, her face pale but her posture resolute. "I didn't want to ruin your trip, but while you were away, I caught her red-handed going through your private desk in the study. She’s been transferring household operational funds into a private account. I have the digital logs right here on my phone! She’s trying to bleed you dry before the wedding!"
"That is a lie, Mr. Julian," Rosa said quietly, a single tear escaping her eye, though her voice remained steady. "I have never touched your desk. I have never taken a single penny that didn't belong to me."
"Shut up, you old hag!" Patricia snapped, her elegant mask completely disintegrating now, revealing the raw, ugly malice beneath. "Julian, look at her! She’s manipulating you just like I said she would. You need to call the police and have her removed from this property immediately. If she stays here another night, I am leaving!"
"You aren't leaving anywhere, Patricia," I said softly.
I pulled my tablet from inside my suit jacket and laid it flat on the mahogany table, sliding it across the polished surface until it stopped directly in front of her.
"Press play," I commanded.
Patricia sneered, looking down at the screen. But the moment the video began to loop, the breath completely vanished from her lungs. It was the high-definition footage from Tuesday morning. The screen showed her grabbing Martina’s stuffed rabbit, throwing it across the room, and menacing my daughters with a cold, terrifying cruelty. It showed her looking at Rosa and explicitly stating: Who do you think planted the seed about your little accounting 'discrepancies' in his head? Who do you think convinced him to audit the household accounts? He is thousands of miles away right now, completely under my spell.
The silence that followed was deafening. The crimson color drained from Patricia’s face, leaving her a ghostly, hideous shade of gray. She backed away from the table, her hands flying to her mouth.
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"This... this is a fabrication," she whispered, her voice shaking violently as she looked from the screen to me. "This is an illegal invasion of my privacy! You... you spied on me?"
"I secured my home from a predator," I corrected, standing up slowly, my full physical height casting a long, dark shadow over her. "You thought because I loved you, I was blind. You thought because I was traveling, my children were defenseless. But what you failed to realize, Patricia, is that every single brick in this house belongs to me. Every camera, every wire, every secret belongs to me. And you just spent the last eight months playing a game you had already lost."
