Chapter 2 - ROSA PACKS HER BAGMalcolm followed Rosa halfway up the staircase.
“Please don’t make a decision right now.”
Rosa stopped.
Water still darkened the shoulders of her uniform.
She looked down at him.
“I didn’t make this decision today.”
That silenced him.
Behind Malcolm, Colette had begun speaking rapidly to Blake.
Rosa could not hear every word.
She caught only fragments.
“Your father was wrong.”
“Don’t worry.”
“You did not deserve that.”
Malcolm heard them too.
“Colette, stop.”
She glared at him.
“You are the last person who gets to tell me what to say to my son right now.”
“Our son,” Malcolm said.
She laughed bitterly.
“You certainly remembered that after hitting him.”
Rosa continued upstairs.
Her room was small compared with the guest suites, but comfortable. It had been hers for nearly four years, although she did not live in the Sterling house full time. During weeks when Malcolm traveled and Colette had events, she often stayed overnight.
She opened the closet and removed a small suitcase.
Malcolm appeared in the doorway.
He had taken off his jacket.
For the first time Rosa noticed how tired he looked.
“Rosa.”
She folded a sweater.
“I should have known.”
Rosa said nothing.
“I should have seen it.”
Still nothing.
Malcolm stepped inside.
“Please say something.”
She stopped folding.
“Your son didn’t learn that in thirteen seconds.”
Malcolm looked away.
“He’s ten.”
“Yes.”
“And I lost my temper.”
“Yes.”
“I shouldn’t have hit him.”
“No.”
Malcolm looked back at her.
Rosa zipped one compartment of the suitcase.
“You want me to tell you that what happened downstairs was one terrible moment.”
He did not answer.
“It wasn’t.”
Malcolm lowered himself into the chair near the window.
“What else has happened?”
Rosa gave him a long look.
“How much do you actually want to know?”
“All of it.”
She almost smiled.
Not because anything was funny.
Because wealthy men often asked for “all of it” after years of choosing not to notice.
“Mrs. Sterling has called employees stupid in front of Blake. She has told him the gardener should be grateful your family pays him. She once made your driver wait forty minutes in the rain because she said coming inside would make the entrance look crowded.”
Malcolm’s jaw tightened.
“She told Blake not to say thank you to me for breakfast because gratitude makes staff too familiar.”
He looked stunned.
Rosa continued.
“When Carla worked here, Mrs. Sterling complained that she was forgetting her place because Blake liked her too much.”
“Carla?”
“His old nanny.”
“I remember Carla.”
“Do you?”
The question landed harder than Rosa intended.
Malcolm frowned.
“She quit.”
“No. She was fired.”
His eyes narrowed.
“For stealing Colette’s bracelet.”
“That’s what you were told.”
Rosa turned back to her suitcase.
Malcolm stood.
“Are you saying Carla didn’t steal it?”
“I’m saying you never asked Carla.”
Footsteps approached.
Colette appeared at the doorway.
“So this is what we’re doing now?”
Rosa kept packing.
“You’re going to poison him against me before you leave?”
Malcolm turned.
“Go downstairs.”
“No.”
“Colette.”
“This woman has been manipulating you for years.”
Rosa finally faced her.
“Mrs. Sterling, please leave my room.”
Colette’s eyes widened.
“Your room?”
“Yes.”
“You mean the room we allow you to use?”
There it was.
The same lesson Blake had absorbed.
Rosa looked at Malcolm.
He heard it too.
Colette realized her mistake.
She softened her voice.
“Malcolm, this has become ridiculous. Blake acted out. You overreacted. Rosa is emotional.”
Rosa picked up her suitcase.
“I’m not emotional.”
She walked toward the door.
Colette blocked her.
“Move,” Rosa said.
Colette did.
Perhaps because Malcolm was watching.
Perhaps because for once she was not certain she controlled the room.
Rosa went downstairs.
Blake sat on the sofa.
His cheek looked normal.
He stared at her suitcase.
“Are you leaving?”
“Yes.”
He seemed surprised.
“Who’s making dinner?”
Malcolm closed his eyes.
Rosa looked at the boy.
For one moment, anger rose inside her.
Then she saw something more complicated.
Blake truly did not understand.
He had never been required to.
“I don’t know,” she said. “Maybe your family.”
Colette scoffed.
“Enough with the performance.”
Rosa walked toward the door.
Malcolm followed.
“I’ll drive you.”
“My sister is coming.”
“Rosa, I’m sorry.”
She looked at him.
“I believe you are.”
He looked relieved too soon.
“But being sorry after seeing it isn’t the same as seeing it before.”
His face fell.
Rosa reached for the handle.
Then she stopped.
There was one thing she had debated for three weeks.
She had almost convinced herself not to say it.
But Colette had escalated.
And Rosa knew silence would no longer protect anyone.
“Mr. Sterling.”
“Yes?”
“Ask your wife what happened to Denise Walker.”
Behind him, Colette went completely still.
Malcolm turned.
“Who?”
Rosa watched Colette.
“Denise Walker.”
Malcolm searched his memory.
Then it came back.
A housekeeper.
Years earlier.
A theft.
A dismissal.
Colette spoke too quickly.
“She stole from us.”
Rosa opened the door.
“Then ask why someone kept making payments under her name two years after she was fired.”
Malcolm stared at her.
Colette’s face drained of color.
Rosa stepped outside.
For the first time since the slap, she felt the balance inside the Sterling house shift.
Only slightly.
But enough.
May you like
Behind her, Malcolm closed the front door.
And turned toward his wife.
Related Stories
