Chapter 4 - The Place They Gave Her
Patrícia lifted her chin.
“She wanted to help.”
Camila looked down.
Ricardo saw it.
The fear.
The shame.
The practiced silence.
“No,” he said. “She didn’t.”
Dona Lourdes appeared in the doorway, champagne glass trembling in her jeweled hand.
“My son,” she said softly, already trying to sound wounded. “You came home without telling anyone. We would have prepared—”
“You prepared plenty.”
His mother glanced toward the dining hall.
Guests had started gathering behind the glass doors, drawn by the sudden quiet.
Patrícia stepped closer.
“You’ve been away too long. You don’t understand how things run here.”
Ricardo gave a short, humorless laugh.
“How things run?”
“She is not good with the household,” Patrícia said. “She gets overwhelmed. We gave her structure.”
Camila’s lips trembled.
Ricardo turned to her.
“Tell me.”
She shook her head faintly.
His voice softened.
“Camila. Tell me.”
She wiped soap from her hands, unable to meet his eyes.
“They said this was my place while you were gone.”
The words entered him quietly.
Then destroyed something loudly inside his chest.
Behind Patrícia, a guest whispered.
Dona Lourdes closed her eyes for half a second.
Not with sorrow.
With calculation.
Ricardo understood then.
This had not been one bad night.
This was a system.
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His family had used his absence, his guilt, and his money to build a kingdom where Camila had no throne.
Only chores.
