My husband's housekeeper killed his mother, and he made me kneel and apologize for it. The new housekeeper was a pretty little idiot. She poured drain cleaner into Dominic's mother, Mrs. Beatrice's washbasin. The acid hit instantly and Beatrice's face went first, skin and flesh, and she screamed and went down. When Dominic rushed in, Melanie threw herself into his arms sobbing. "I saw it online. The formula was supposed to brighten skin and reduce wrinkles. I was just trying to help her, sir. This is all my fault..." He pulled her closer. "That's just her bad luck. She couldn't handle nice things. How is that your fault?" He swept a contemptuous look my way. "Get your mother cleaned up. Can't you see you're frightening Melanie?" "Take your grievances outside. Nobody wants to look at your face." Melanie pulled herself up all fragile and trembling and pressed a slip of paper into my hand. A $10 funeral expense form. "The sir already said this had nothing to do with me," she said softly. "But she was still your mother. The Bouchard household should cover a proper burial. Please, ma'am, just take it." I laughed and threw the form in Dominic's face. "That's yours to keep." His face went cold and he roared at me. "Your mom's a nobody. A patch of dirt is more than enough for her. Melanie's being generous. Seraphina, don't push it." He was already flushed with rage and then he saw the number on the form and his face twitched. Melanie scrambled to fix it. "I grabbed the wrong form. I'm so sorry, ma'am, let me get you another one. Please don't fire me." She rifled through her bag but I was done waiting. "You idiot. The woman still has a pulse and you're handing me her funeral bill." "Get out of my way. Both of you." I called 911 with one hand and waved over Higgins, our driver, with the other to help carry Mrs. Beatrice to the car. Before I could get the door shut, Melanie grabbed the keys and dove into the driver's seat. "I'll drive." She hit the gas and the car slammed into a utility pole. Mrs. Beatrice was thrown fifteen feet and the back of her head cracked against something sharp and blood came fast. The one who caused it sat crumpled on the ground crying like a lost child. "I only wanted to help. I'm so sorry, ma'am. I'm just so stupid..." I looked at Mrs. Beatrice covered in blood and my fists went tight. "No license. No permit. Melanie, that's not stupidity. That's attempted murder." "Seraphina, shut your mouth." Dominic shoved past me without a glance at his mother and crouched next to Melanie and cupped her hand where a small scratch had formed and blew on it gently, then looked back at me. "Melanie was trying to help and you're going after her? Get over here and apologize. Now." I stared at him. "Dominic, your mother is lying on the ground." He didn't hear me. His eyes were only on Melanie. The ambulance got there in time and Higgins and I waved the paramedics over. When they saw Mrs. Beatrice they rushed the stretcher out. Dominic grabbed them and stopped them cold. "Turn around." He swept Melanie up in his arms and laid her on the stretcher meant for his mother. "Go. Now." I threw myself in front of the ambulance doors. "Dominic, your mother is dying. How do you not see what matters here?" He stood beside Melanie and his voice didn't waver. "You're the one who can't see clearly." "Melanie is my personal housekeeper and she's exceptional at what she does. Your mother was a nobody. She doesn't get to take up resources meant for people who matter." He waved his hand and two bodyguards dragged me back. Something bitter spread through my chest. That's what she was to him. Nothing. I watched the ambulance pull away and fought against the grip on my arms and screamed. "Dominic, that is your mother." "She drove hours to get here. Just to see you." He went still and the look in his eyes went hollow. Dominic lost his father when he was young and it had always been just the two of them. Three years ago when the company finally took off, the first thing he did was bring Mrs. Beatrice to the city. She never fully settled in and preferred the life she knew back home and rarely stayed with us. A few days ago when the pressure at work got to him, Dominic called her just to talk and told her he missed her cooking, and the next morning she got in the car without telling anyone wanting to surprise him. What she got instead was Melanie mocking her clothes and telling her the drain cleaner would "get rid of that farmhouse smell." Dominic's mouth moved but before he could speak Melanie cut in, tears already forming. "It's all my fault. I know that. But you can't blame Dominic for something I did."
Whatever hesitation had been in his eyes was gone. Replaced with fury. "Seraphina, are you out of your mind?" "Your mother raised a daughter like you? She deserved what she got." The ambulance left and dust settled behind it. I drove alone and ran every red light and got Mrs. Beatrice into surgery. Then I went to pay and found the account empty, worse than empty, a million dollars in debt with my name flagged as a defaulter. The account was linked to Dominic's. I already knew who had done it. I went straight to the top floor and found Melanie in the VIP suite. Dominic was sitting beside her hand-feeding her soup. I kept my voice level. "Melanie. Where is my money?" She shook like she'd been caught and her voice came out small. "I'm sorry, ma'am. I thought I could grow it for you so I took the savings and put them into investments but I lost everything..." "Investments. You have a nursing degree, Melanie. Not finance." Dominic stepped in front of her. "It's just money. I'll transfer it right now. Leave her alone." He sent fifty thousand on the spot. Before I could leave, Higgins stumbled into the room, face white, voice cracking. "Ma'am. Mrs. Beatrice's organs failed. She's gone." My mind went blank and my legs nearly gave out. Dominic didn't even look up. "Good. Now stop hovering and get out. You're upsetting Melanie." He turned to the bodyguards. "Get rid of the body before she wakes up. I don't want her seeing that." They moved for the door and I blocked them. "You're not touching her." Mrs. Beatrice wasn't my mother by blood but she was a good woman and she treated me like a daughter from the start. I wasn't going to let her be destroyed and do nothing. "Illegal chemicals. No license. Melanie, you are not stupid. You are a killer." "You are going to answer for what you did." Melanie buried herself in Dominic's arms and wept. "That's not true, sir. I didn't want to hurt anyone..." He looked at me like I was something on the bottom of his shoe. "It was her time. Stop trying to drag Melanie into this." A snap of his fingers and the bodyguards closed in and locked me in a basement with no windows. Hours later Dominic came down and stood in the doorway and looked down at me. "Melanie flew out to arrange a proper burial. She didn't have to do that." "The least you can do is thank her." I looked up and he was holding his phone out, video call running. On screen Melanie was picking her way along a muddy path outside a church and pallbearers struggled behind her with the casket. Then she tripped and took two of them down with her. The casket hit the ground and caught the slope of the churchyard hill and rolled and didn't stop until it dropped into the drainage ditch at the bottom. I had nothing left. "Dominic. You are worse than nothing." He didn't even look at me, just kept calling into the screen. "Melanie! Are you okay? Don't be scared. I'm coming right now." He turned and walked away. I let my eyes close. I wondered, when Dominic found out whose body had been desecrated, whether he'd still feel so easy about it. After they let me out I called the attending physician. "Doctor, I need a signed statement."
I handed the documents straight to my lawyer. I was barely out of the office when something hit the back of my skull and everything went dark. When I came to my hands were bound and I was kneeling on the floor in front of Melanie. "You were going to have her arrested? Seraphina, when did you get so vicious?" Dominic glared down at me and threw a document in my face. A divorce agreement. He wanted me to walk away with nothing. The anger that rose in me was almost choking. "You're the one who cheated, Dominic. What right do you have?" His voice came out flat and cold. "I told you to disappear. Instead you went after Melanie." "Everything you own in this marriage goes to her. Call it damages." He snapped his fingers and bodyguards materialized from every corner and grabbed my hands and forced them toward the signature line. I knelt on the cold floor, knees grinding against the tile. Melanie peeked out from behind him, voice soft. "She looks so pitiful, sir. I don't need that much money..." Dominic cut her off. "Don't. This is what she owes you. And the dowry from her family, that's yours too." Melanie blinked at him all wide eyes and innocence. "Thank you for standing up for me, sir." I was gritting my teeth when the assistant walked in and said something close to Dominic's ear. The TV clicked on. It was the attending physician. He stood in front of the camera, composed. "Seraphina's mother-in-law died of natural illness. Seraphina is attempting to exploit that death to extort Ms. Melanie. As a physician, I will not be party to fraud." Each word landed like something sharp. The fight went out of me and I sat on the floor. Dominic turned the TV off. "Seraphina. I told you. You can't win against me." The door burst open and a mob pushed in, phones out and recording. "That's her. Cashing in on a dead woman." Someone shoved a camera in my face and someone else threw a cup of soda and a carton of eggs came from the back. "Disgusting. She has no shame." "Bet her mother-in-law died just to get away from her." I got hit and went down and someone poured a drink over my head and the crowd kept filming. Dominic watched from across the room, Melanie under his arm. "This is what you get for what you did to Melanie." He left and at the door Melanie glanced back at me, satisfied. In half a day I had become someone the whole city wanted to bury.
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