The Billionaire’s Housekeeper

Chapter 3

“Mr. Ainsworth,” Rita squeaked. She picked up the phone and placed it back down on the receiver. She wasn’t thinking, and didn’t even remember that her mother was on the other line. She’d call her back later. Right now she was too worried about George and what it was that he could have heard.

“What was that all about, Rita?” his voice was raised slightly and he was glaring at her. Rita recognized that tone for whenever he had gotten in a spat with his now ex-wife Julie.

“I was just talking to my mom. How did you get in here?”

“The door was open. I came here to see if you were feeling better than this morning, but clearly I stumbled on something else, didn’t I?” George squared his shoulders and clenched his jaw. Even in anger he appeared to be regal.

Rita didn’t know what to say. She wasn’t sure everything that he had heard, but it was enough to make him upset. In just a matter of hours, her world was crashing down around her. Mr. Ainsworth would more than likely call the authorities and she would have to go back to Montreal; the one place she was afraid to go back to.

“Have you nothing to say to me?” George said with his teeth still clenched. Rita’s mouth opened and closed. She didn’t know where to begin. She could either come clean now or continue with her ruse. She would be found out sooner or later. It was best, she felt, for her to be honest with him.

“I’m not really sure what it is that I can say, Mr. Ainsworth,” Rita said. She stood and faced him, but her gaze met the floor. She was silly to think that she could try to be friends with him. They were from completely separate worlds. He was practically royalty, and she was just the housekeeper.

“Well from what I gather, you’re in this country illegally. Is that true?” George said. His voice hadn’t softened at all. His temper was flaring, but he was trying to hold it together. Rita already looked ashamed, and he didn’t want to frighten her. He just wanted to know the truth.

Rita nodded.

“I see. Well, you know you won’t be able to stay here any longer Rita.”

Rita’s eyes widened when she finally looked up at him. There was no chance to plead her case or to explain what was happening. He was so willing to just let her go.

Tears formed in Rita’s big brown eyes. George looked away. If he looked at her then he would have backed down.

“You’ve been lying to me for three years. You’ve been in my house, and I’ve let you live on our property. What’s going to happen to me when people find out? Is that why the paparazzi was outside today?” George asked.

“I don’t know,” Rita found her voice finally. A few tears streamed down her cheeks, but she brushed them away with the tips of her fingers. “I only guessed that was why they could have been outside today. I panicked and just needed to call my mom.”

“What would have happened if you had been caught? The authorities would have gotten a hold of you. They would no doubt ask me questions about harboring you, and I would have no answers for them. It’s too risky. The shares in my company are already going down, and I’ve been getting negative publicity because of the divorce,” George said. He was beside himself. He was pacing back and forth and appeared to be talking more to himself than to Rita. She watched him in her peripheral without actually taking a proper look at him. She didn’t want to be fired. She had nowhere else to go.

“Wait, does Julie know?” George stopped suddenly. The thought had just occurred to him. When it came to their duties as husband and wife, Julie had been in charge of everyone they had hired, and was responsible for their wages also. If Julie had been the one to pay, then she must have known about Rita’s situation.

“Yes and no,” Rita said. She didn’t feel like explaining further, but she knew she had too. She was already fired according to him anyways. “She knew I wasn’t a citizen and that I couldn’t pay taxes. She’s been paying me with cash since. She didn’t ask any questions because I’m good at my job.”

“And what was it that brought you here?”

“I just had to leave…” Rita replied. Her eyes were once again brimming with tears.

“You don’t have to be afraid, Rita. I don’t think that you hurt anyone. Look at you, you couldn’t hurt a fly. Can you tell me why you had to leave?” George had calmed down just a bit. He hated making anyone cry. Even when Julie cried, her tears were his kryptonite. He wanted to find rational ways of solving the issues without harsh words, tears, and certainly not violence. He was a businessman even in his regular life.

Rita released her words the same way she had let out her tears. There were moments when she allowed them to flow freely, and then times when she held back what she wanted to say. In her mind, she was juggling between letting him know the full story, or telling him the bare minimum.

“When I was 21 I got into a really terrible relationship,” she started. She looked up to search George’s face. He moved a few steps forward and nodded for her to continue.

“He was a few years older than me, and I was so excited to have him. He was my first proper boyfriend. It was after school, and he had opened up to me right away. My mother never liked him. She was right all along not to trust him.”

The tears started again, but Rita shook them away and stood even more boldly upright. Now that she had a chance to tell the full story, she wanted to show that she was braver now than when she was younger.

“We eventually moved in together. My mother didn’t approve, and my friends hated him. He was always so snarky, and telling me when I could go out or who it was that I could see. He wanted me with him all the time. And if I wasn’t with him, he wanted me to be doing things for him. I felt like a prisoner in our little apartment.”

George’s eyebrows raised and then scrunched together. He was getting upset again, but it was clear that he wasn’t getting upset with Rita.

“If there were times I left when he wasn’t there, there would always be someone to report back to him. I felt like I belonged to him. My mother and my friends begged me to leave him, but I didn’t know what to do. At that time I thought I was in love with him. Even after the first time he hit me…”

Rita’s words got tangled in her throat when she started to talk about the abuse. Her tears had turned into full blown sobs. George walked across the room and over to her. He took Rita in his arms and embraced her. He could feel the pounding of her heart against him.

“You don’t have to say anything else. I understand why you did what you had to do,” George said. He could feel that it was uncomfortable for Rita to talk about her past. That was why she had managed to keep it a secret for so long.

She had managed to stop crying, but her shoulders still shook. George didn’t let her go. He pulled her away from him just enough for him to look into her eyes.

“Don’t worry, Rita. I’m sorry I snapped at you.”

“No, I understand. You didn’t know,” she walked away from him to get a paper towel from the kitchen. She wiped away her tears before collapsing onto the couch. It had been an exhausting day for her. She had her usual work to do, but she had spent a lot of that day over thinking and crying. She didn’t know where she was going to be tomorrow.