Chapter 498
[ 539 words ]
Chapter 498:
The silver fork in Cornelia Romero’s hand clattered against her porcelain plate. The sound was unnaturally loud in the tense silence. Her face was a mask of disbelief. In this house, meals were served at precise times. Punctuality was a sign of respect. This… this was a flagrant violation of decades of tradition. It was an insult.
The General’s head snapped toward her. His eyes, cold and sharp as a hawk’s, fixed on his daughter-in-law. The unspoken warning was so potent, so filled with menace, that the protest forming on Cornelia’s lips died before it could be born.
Agnes, ever the diplomat, bowed her head slightly. “Shall I have a tray sent up to the young mistress’s room, General?”
He considered it for a moment, then raised a hand. “No. Do not disturb her. We will wait.” He looked around the table at the other resentful faces. “The kitchen will keep everything warm. You may begin.”
Under the table, Harper’s hands twisted a linen napkin into a mangled knot. The jealousy was a hot, acidic bile rising in her throat. She was the granddaughter of the house, a true Romero by blood, and she had never been afforded such a privilege. Not once had the entire household schedule been altered for her comfort. And now this, this nobody, this nurse from the gutter, was being treated like a visiting queen. The station announcement echoed in her mind: Mrs. Romero. General Romero’s daughter-in-law. The words were a public seal, a declaration that made Caroline untouchable. If the General was already this protective, altering the household schedule, silencing Cornelia with a single look, then what would he do if Harper truly pushed? The fear that had been a cold trickle now became a flood. She had to undermine Caroline before the General’s favor became unassailable. Before Caroline’s quiet influence swallowed everything Harper believed was hers.
Upstairs, the sunbeam crept across Caroline’s face. The light tickled her eyelids, and she finally, groggily, began to surface. She blinked, her mind a thick fog. She rolled over, her eyes struggling to focus on the ornate grandfather clock against the far wall.
The long hand pointed to the six. The short hand pointed to the twelve.
Twelve-thirty.
Her eyes widened. The fog in her brain evaporated in a flash of pure, unadulterated panic. Every sleepy cell in her body screamed to attention.
“Oh, no,” she whispered, a sound of pure despair.
𝖣𝗂sс𝗼𝗏𝗲r 𝗵𝘪d𝗱𝗲𝗻 𝗴e𝘮𝘴 𝗈𝗇 𝗀а𝗹ոо𝘷e𝗅s.𝖼𝘰𝘮
She launched herself out of bed as if she’d been electrocuted. The stew. The promise. The lunch. She had slept through it all. She had failed her first test. She had proven them right. She was lazy, disrespectful, a commoner with no sense of propriety.
She stumbled into the adjoining marble bathroom, splashed her face with cold water, and ran a frantic hand through her tangled hair. She threw on the first clean clothes she could find, her fingers fumbling with the buttons, her heart hammering against her ribs with shame and dread.
Caroline burst into the dining room, her hair still damp and hastily combed, her chest heaving from her sprint down the grand staircase.
“General, I am so, so sorry,” she panted, her eyes fixed on the man at the head of the table. “I overslept. I don’t know how…”
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