《THE MAID OF MADRID》全部章節：第 1 章 - 第 8 章

Diego did not move. He stood there with his hands in the pockets of his expensive blue shorts. He looked at me with those dark, sharp eyes. He looked like he was deciding whether to crush a bug or let it crawl away. Mateo’s hand was sweating against mine. I could feel his fingers trembling just a little bit. He was trying to be brave for me, but we were both terrified of his father. The Patron was a man who did not like his sons mixing with the help."What do you want, Diego?" Mateo asked. His voice was thick and low. He moved his body more to the left to make sure Diego could not even see my face.Diego took a step forward. He reached out and touched a leaf on the rose bush next to him. He pulled the leaf off and started to rip it into tiny little pieces with his fingernails. He watched the green bits fall onto his shiny black shoes. "I want to know why you are hiding. I want to know why you are giving her things that belong to this family. That bird is not hers. It is ours."I felt

The dust from Mateo’s car had barely settled on the road before the world turned cold. For weeks after he left, I sat by that stone pillar every morning, waiting for a car to return. I waited for a letter. I waited for a miracle. But the Alarcón gates stayed shut, and the silence in our small room became a heavy weight that crushed my spirit.Seventeen years passed like a slow, painful dream. I grew up in the shadows of the mansion, watching my mother’s hair turn gray and her heart turn to stone. We were broke. We were worse than broke; we were owned.I was twenty-three now. I spent my days scrubbing the same tiles I scrubbed as a child. My mother, Rosa, was even more angry than before."Stop looking at those books, Valeria!" she screamed at me one night. I was sitting on the floor of our laundry room, trying to read a law textbook I had found in the trash behind the village library. "Books do not put bread on the table. You are a maid. Your mother is a maid. Your grandmother was a ma

I sat on the edge of the hard bed in the hostel, staring at the crumbs of the bread I had just finished. The water was lukewarm, but it cleared the dust from my throat. My body was sore from the long walk and the years of scrubbing, but I didn't let myself lie down. If I closed my eyes now, I might not wake up until morning, and I couldn't afford to miss this shift.I reached for my phone. The screen was cracked, but it still worked. I checked the time. It was almost eight.I stood up and pulled my small purse from under the pillow. I checked the lining of my old coat. The thick stack of bills was still there, tucked away safely. It was the only thing that kept me going. I needed these next two nights to be huge. I needed enough to never look at a mop again.I walked out of the hostel and into the humid evening air. The city was waking up, the neon lights starting to glow. I walked fast, my heart beating with a mix of fear and excitement.When I reached the back door of the Mascara Cl

The heat radiating through his charcoal suit was unmistakable. Mateo’s hands tightened on the Valeria’s waist, feeling the smooth rhythm of her skin against his palms. The thump of the bass from the empty floor seemed to fade, replaced by the sound of her silver chains clinking in the dark.He leaned his head forward, his lips brushing the shell of her ear. "I want you for tonight," Mateo whispered, his voice deep, rough, and thick with an urgency he hadn't felt in years.I felt his hot breath against my neck, and a shiver ran straight down my spine. It was a familiar sensation, a strange tug in my chest that I couldn't explain, but I forced it down. I was Luna. I didn't get emotionally attached to the bastard rich; I just took their money.I turned my head slightly, the edge of my silver lace mask brushing against his velvet one. Our noses collided softly in the dark, but our mouths were completely free. I let out a low, breathless laugh, tilting my chin up to look at him."Tonight i