Chapter 7
Maya asked to leave the estate.
Not quit.
Go home for the night.
I said yes.
Then stopped myself.
“Do you feel safe going alone?”
She looked surprised.
“Yes.”
Good.
No automatic protection assignment because I wanted to feel useful.
She had already had enough people deciding for her.
Before leaving, she handed me the rope Bruno had chewed through.
“I kept it.”
“Why?”
“I thought you might need proof.”
My jaw tightened.
She still expected to justify what happened.
I took it.
“Thank you.”
Then:
“You don’t need to prove it again.”
Her eyes filled.
She nodded.
The next morning I learned Victoria had treated Maya badly for months.
Not dramatically.
Enough to create a pattern.
Extra shifts.
Meals withheld until guests finished.
Private insults.
Calling her “temporary staff” despite two years of service.
Why?
Because Bruno preferred Maya.
At first that sounded absurd.
Then it made sense.
Bruno had belonged to my father.
I trusted the dog’s instincts irrationally.
Victoria noticed.
If Bruno disliked someone, I noticed too.
Bruno never attacked Victoria.
He simply avoided her.
Stayed near Maya.
That made Victoria feel watched.
Not by a dog.
By my father’s memory.
Ridiculous.
Human.
When Maya found the collar seam, all Victoria’s resentment converged.
The maid.
The dog.
The key.
The threat.
She used a service-room rope because the decision was impulsive.
Then Elias helped instead of stopping her.
That was his point of no return.
I asked him later:
“Why?”
He looked at me.
“I thought ten minutes tied to a pipe was better than everything collapsing.”
There.
Ends justify means.
Small cruelty protecting large ambition.
Always dangerous.
“Maya was a person.”
“I know.”
“No.”
I leaned closer.
“You knew she was staff.”
Silence.
“That’s why you thought you could borrow ten minutes of her freedom.”
His face changed.
May you like
Good.
He understood the difference.
