Chapter 35 #2
The word hits like a slap. My breath stutters, a gasp clawing up my throat before I force it down. I see the naked malice in his eyes, the way the next filthy word is already waiting on his tongue.
“Zach is the only one of your six sons who tolerates you, and you treat him like he’s dispensable.
You probably treated your wife the same way.
” I take a step closer, my heart hammering so hard it scares me.
“You used her. Ignored her. Broke her down until there was nothing left, and then you probably acted surprised when she couldn’t survive you. ”
“Don’t talk about my wife,” he snaps, eyes so cold, he could skewer me where I stand.
I’ve found his Achilles heel.
“She must have been so miserable, so tormented, so broken, that she drove her car off a bridge.” I shake my head. “Poor woman. She had three young boys who were her world, and you couldn’t help yourself. You broke her.”
“Enough!” His face turns beet red; his eyes bulge and a vein along his forehead looks like it’s going to pop.
The room goes deathly quiet, and then there’s a knock at the door.
“Maya? Open the door, m’hija!”
Shock and relief crash together. I rush toward the door because I hear a voice I never expected to hear. Not in a million years. Not here. Not now.
My mom is here.
I open the door, to find her staring at me, her eyes large with fear. A small wheelie suitcase by her side.
“I heard shouting, m’hija. Are you okay?”
“Mamá!” I’m so relieved to see her that I fall into her arms. She’s smaller than I am, shorter than I am. “What are you doing here, Ma?”
“Who are you talking to?”
I move away, and she sees him; the man who ruined her life.
“What are you doing here?” she hisses, eyes blazing, in a thick deadly voice I’ve never heard before.
She turns to me in disbelief. “What are you doing with that devil?” she demands.
“That beast. That pig. That … that …” She breaks off, muttering a stream of rapid Spanish under her breath, full Mama Bear mode activated.
She rests a hand gently on my arm, worry etched in the lines on her face. “Did he do something, mi nina?”
My girl.
I shake my head, needing to reassure her. “He didn’t do anything.”
“Are you all right?” Her eyes slowly go over me, like she’s expecting wounds.
“Mamá, he didn’t do anything. He tried to bribe me.”
“Bribe you?” she hisses, walking towards him. She’s four feet ten of blazing power and strength, heading for him like a nuclear missile. He looks at us, trying to be cool and casual. Unflinching.
I wonder how long that will last.
“Ah, please,” he says.
“You dirty, filthy bastard.” She faces him squarely, a small but deadly powerhouse of a woman. Her jacket is still on, her face flushed and hardened into something I’ve never seen before. Not even on that night when we fled. This time, there’s no fear, no hesitation.
Just pure blind rage.
“You,” she hisses, like she’d stab him with a dagger if she had one in her hand. “You stay away from my family.”
I don’t know this version of my mother.
Paul straightens. He’s unprepared and flummoxed. He’s obviously as shocked as I am to see her, but for different reasons. “I didn’t expect to see—”
“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, that pig, 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.
“He’s nothing like his father,” I say quickly. “Nothing like him.”
“But why is he here?” she demands, not piecing it together.
“He came here mistakenly thinking he could pay me to walk away from Zach’s life.”
“Oh,” my mother says coolly. “At least he’s offering money now. Be glad he hasn’t planted some more of his late wife’s jewelry here.”
“No, nothing like that.” I say quietly. “He’s trying to play a different game, and losing.” I smile at him. “You are so going to pay for this.”
He sneers. “It’s my word against the two of you. And who would believe you?”
“Zach would,” I say. “And so would the rest of your sons. I don’t mind telling them.”
His face darkens, lips pressing into a thin, furious line. The vein along his forehead throbs again, like a warning, like he’s almost on the verge of combusting. “You wouldn’t dare.”
“Try me.”
My mom lets out a chuckle. “Men like you think silence is loyalty,” she says, her voice calm and steady. “It’s just fear, and fear runs out, eventually.”
His eyes narrow to slits, and then he just walks out.
I close the door behind him. I lock it. My hands are shaking so badly I have to try twice. Then I turn, and I fall straight into my mother’s arms. She wraps herself around me, and I feel safe, and grounded and protected again, breathing her in like the oxygen I so badly need.
“Mi nina, mi vida,” she cries, smothering me with her kisses.
My girl. My life.
She frames my face, pushing my wayward strands of hair out of the way. “You gave me the biggest shock when I saw him here, with you.”
“I’m sorry, Mamá. I’m sorry. I didn’t want you to see this.”
“It would kill me if you had hidden it.”
“I’m sorry. I was going to tell you… about Zach.” I jolt into awareness. “What are you doing here?”
“I was worried about you,” she says softly. “You would have visited me many times by now, but you haven’t for months, and you haven’t sounded the same.”
“I thought I hid it.”
“You’ve been phoning me every day this week, mi nina. Every single day.”
My voice cracks. “I missed you.”
“I know you did.” She takes my hands in hers and kisses them in turn. “I knew something was wrong, and that’s why I came.”
“Your timing couldn’t have been more perfect.”
She pulls back slightly, nodding to herself. “A mother knows these things.”
“Oh, Mamá.” We hug again. “I’m sorry,” I whisper. “I’m so sorry you had to see that.”
“It was meant to be. I have often dreamed about facing him, instead of running away …”
“Mamá,” I snap, not allowing her to blame herself.
“You didn’t run away because you were a coward, you ran away because it was the only thing you could do at the time.
How could you have gone up against that man?
Who would have believed you? You did the right thing.
” I pause, then ask, “Did it help, to say those things to him?”
She studies my face. “More than you know. I have kept those words hidden in my heart for years, and this now? It was karma.” She looks so vindicated, so triumphant, like she finally got her day, not in court, but in front of me, and she was able to tell him exactly what she thought of him.
I tell her why he was here, and it all comes out in fragmented sentences and broken words. I tell her about Zach, about the party, about Paul Knight thinking he could buy me off.
She looks at me with pride.
“Are you okay, Mamá?” I ask again, because I’m aware of how this must have looked, and how hard it must have been to confront the man who assaulted her. To meet him face to face unexpectedly. “It must’ve been such a shock.”
“It was a shock,” she admits. “But you were here.” She cups my cheek. “A mother’s first instinct is to save her child.”
“Like a mama bear,” I say, my voice cracking, because this woman has always put me first. She’s the reason I’ve worked crazy hours at Stella, and why I’ve been at Katherine’s beck and call, so I could put more money aside and give some to her, to make her life easier.
“I’ve always been a mama bear, precious child. Always. You are the light of my life.”
“Mamá,” I say, tears flowing down my face. Then I remember something, and walk over to my cell phone, relieved to see it’s still recording. “I have something,” I say slowly. “I have something that will vindicate us.” I hold out my phone to her. She stares at it, not understanding.
“I recorded it all, Mamá.”
“You have it on tape?”
“No tape exactly, but I have it. All of it.”
She exhales slowly. “But what is the point of going to the police now?”
“The police won’t help,” I say. “But his sons need to know what this man is really like.”
“I think his sons do know.”
“His sons don’t care about him, but Zach does.
” I decide in that moment that Zach should know.
I’m going to tell him everything about his father.
Because Paul Knight took it a step too far this time, walking into my apartment, like he owned it, and expecting me to walk away from his son. Expecting to pay me off.
My mom turns toward the kitchen. “I’m going to make dinner,” she announces. “You look like you need good, hearty food.”
“Oh, Mamá,” I cry happily.