The Billionaire’s Housekeeper

Rita sat down to eat at the same stool that George had been in that morning. There was a small stack of newspapers on the island. She had been avoiding the news for so long, and even asked George not to say anything if he saw something about them in the newspaper. But today she was curious.

She picked up one of the rolled newspapers and looked through until she got to where she thought any stories about George could be. There didn’t seem to be anything at first until she got to the third page. It wasn’t the largest story on the page, but the title was bold enough for it to be noticed right away.

“Billionaire Marries Housekeeper; Former Wife Claims She Knew About the Affair”.

Rita’s blood ran cold. Julie had spoken to the press. Now the story would be that Rita was a homewrecker, and that George was a playboy. This wasn’t going to help him with his business. She wasn’t sure how he ever thought that potentially ruining his career was worth helping her. She wanted to know if he was just a caring person who didn’t want anything bad to happen to the people in his life, or if she was what he cared about.

She read a bit of the article but stopped halfway. It was too much negativity for the day. Rita folded the paper and tossed it back onto the counter. She finished eating her breakfast and cleaned up a bit.

She couldn’t think of anything to do before the new cleaning staff arrived, so she called Jose to come over. He didn’t live too far away, and spending time with him was just what Rita needed. Jose would be a welcome distraction from her thoughts and what she had seen in the newspaper earlier.

Rita waited in the living room. The guard would let Jose in, but she wanted to be close enough to the door. She was feeling a new kind of anxious. There was something about this that excited her. The rumors would pass, she knew, but she also felt like she was untouchable. George Ainsworth had kept his promise so far.

The doorbell chimed and echoed throughout the house. The high ceilings and marble floor made the acoustics of the room so unique that the sound of the bells floated about like an aroma, tickling the internal walls of the ears of anyone in that room.

“Good morning Mrs. Ainsworth,” Jose bowed dramatically, flamboyantly swishing his arms and bending forward as low as he would go.

“Will you be doing this every time I answer the door?”

“God, I hope so,” he said. “Where is everybody?”

“The new staff should be here in about an hour. Beatrice is in town getting some food for later. So I’m all by my lonesome.”

“If this were a movie, this would be the part where they would have a montage of you wearing the former Mrs. Ainsworth’s furs,” Jose laughed. He and Rita walked into the kitchen and sat down on the stools in front of the island. “Speaking of Julie; how is the little devil?”

Rita smacked Jose playfully, but he just shrugged.

“We haven’t really heard from her since the wedding. She said she was gonna come back to get the rest of her things…but she hasn’t called and nobody has come for them,” Rita said.

“Do you think she’s gonna try to sabotage you and Mr. A?”

“She’s starting to already,” Rita said. She let out an exasperated sigh. That was partially why she called Jose. She needed to tell him what was going on in her world now, but she also just needed to have some fun with her friend so that she could take her mind off of everything that was going on around her.

“How so? It’s been awfully quiet out front since you guys released those wedding photos. You looked very Dorothy Dandridge by the way, just thought I should let you know. But I haven’t seen any paparazzi out front in about a week.”

Rita’s shoulders collapsed and she put her forehead down on the kitchen island.

“They haven’t been out front because they’ve been so busy talking to Julie. She apparently knew about the affair that we were having from before their divorce.”

“What affair?” Jose asked. He knew Rita better than anyone, and he knew that the most George and Rita had spoken was from just before they agreed to get married in order to save Rita from being found out and getting deported.

Jose pulled his phone out of his pocket and started going through it. He was probably looking for any word about Rita and George.

“That’s what I read in the paper this morning,” Rita said. “Julie has been talking to the press. I didn’t read the article; the only thing I saw was the title, and I didn’t think I could stand reading any more.”

“She what?” Jose said. He sounded frustrated. He was never a fan of Julie Ainsworth to begin with.

“Yeah. She said in the paper that George and I have been having an affair. I don’t know if I should even bring it up to him. It could be that he knows already. Which means he sacrificed so much just to keep me safe,” Rita said. Guilt overwhelmed her. She stayed put with her arms on the counter, and her head resting on top of the backs of her hands. Jose rubbed her back and continued to scroll through his phone. He stopped scrolling suddenly. He seemed deep in concentration, like he was now reading something.

“Which article did you say it was?”

“The article that says that ‘Julie Ainsworth speaks up about husband’s affair’ or something like that,” Rita said sitting up on the stool to give Jose a better look.

“I see some articles that have that. But there’s something else,” he paused and shot a nervous glance at Rita.

Rita didn’t respond. She knew Jose had a knack for being melodramatic, but she didn’t want to say anything. She needed for him to tell her what was going on.

“Rita…one of the articles here says that your marriage is a sham. They’re saying that your nuptials aren’t legal.”