Painful Lessons
Rachel
I was about to enter Joseph's room with his dinner when I heard Enrico announce that he would be dining out that night. Surely, he would be accompanied by a beautiful woman, elegantly dressed and made up. Perhaps an heiress, like I used to be.
I couldn't hide my expression of disappointment, and I knew Enrico had noticed, but he simply turned away without bothering to say goodnight or even a simple goodbye until tomorrow.
“Why are you standing there at the door?” Joseph complained, looking at me irritably. “Come on, bring my food already.”
“Of course” I agreed, going to him with the tray.
I carefully placed the tray on the table, fearing that at any moment he would throw it on the floor, as he had done before. I was exhausted, and the last thing I wanted that night was to clean up a mess of food.
“You should already know that you don't stand a chance with my son,” Joseph said without looking at me as he opened the tray. “Enrico can choose any woman he wants. He would never choose someone like you.”
I could even ask him why he was telling me this, as it was completely unnecessary. I had a mirror in the bathroom of my room and was aware of all my flaws. It was clear that I was only good for Enrico's bed. When he went out to dinner, he invited other women, more pleasing in every aspect.
“Do you need anything else, sir?” I asked, wishing to disappear from that room as quickly as possible.
“I do, but I'd rather you call Lindsay to come here” Joseph chose to offend me a little more “I'm tired of looking at your face.”
“I'll call her” I agreed without delay “Have a good night, sir.”
I walked away slowly, feeling defeated, tears threatening to spill from my eyes, but I kept them under control. I would cry in the solitude of my bed, in the small room for the staff at Enrico's mansion.
And that's exactly what I did after informing Lindsay that Joseph was calling her. She promptly responded to the call, without questioning anything. Lindsay always proved to be a loyal friend, aware of how difficult Joseph could be with his antipathy towards me, and she did her best to ease the situation for everyone, something I couldn't help but recognize.
I remembered Sarah's visit and again questioned the close relationship between her and Enrico. It didn't bother Kael, which was quite intriguing, considering the person I knew. Had Sarah already returned to Seattle, or was she still in London? There was no way to know the answer to that question unless I asked someone, something I didn't intend to do.
When Lindsay returned to the room, I pretended to be asleep. I didn't want to talk, there was no atmosphere for it, and I didn't want her to see the tears in my eyes.
If there was some greater force wanting to make me feel the rejection of people, I sincerely hoped it would realize that I had already felt it and that now I knew how much it hurt. I didn't know if I could endure all these trials for much longer.
I was seriously considering leaving Enrico's house and living on my own. Perhaps there was somewhere a woman with a face marked by a scar could still find some opportunity to make money. However, as quickly as this thought arose, I also felt repulsion for it. It was better to go to sleep... I was thinking too much nonsense.
************ ❤️***********
A few days later, Enrico traveled again to compete in a new stage of the Formula One World Championship, this time in Italy. He seemed to be having a lot of fun there, according to the photos Hilary posted on her social media.
It seemed that there was no more animosity between the two biggest rivals in the race for the championship lead, as in several photos, Enrico and Lorenzo appeared together, as well as some other people I didn't know from the time I was following them when I was still trying to win an engagement ring from the Italian driver.
Thinking about it now, I even found it funny that in the end, the ring ended up with Hilary, someone I never imagined would be interested in Lorenzo and who helped me get closer to him.
“It looks like you enjoy spending time on social media now” Lindsay commented. “Seems like that's what occupies your free time lately.”
I was sitting in the kitchen, quite tired after helping Mrs. Anderson with dinner, as she needed to leave early that night to celebrate her daughter's birthday. Helping her was a way to finish faster.
“Before, I used to live, and now I see people living,” I remarked with a hint of lament.
“Because that's what you want it to be” Lindsay pointed out, sitting across from me “We can have fun, even if we're poor.”
Lindsay was smiling as she said this, but I found no humor in it and remained with the same serious expression as before.
“Oh! I always forget that you don't like doing poor people things…”
“That's not the issue, Lindsay” Faced with her incredulous look, I corrected myself “At least not anymore. I can't just go around with my face disfigured like this.”
“There's a small scar on your face, Rachel, but your face isn't disfigured.”
“You mean I'm not ugly with this here” I pointed to the scar “on my face?”
“You're not as perfect as you'd like to be…. But you're still beautiful.”
I didn't believe Lindsay and wasn't going to continue with that discussion that never led anywhere, so I changed the subject.
“I'll take dinner to Joseph” I announced, getting up from the chair.
“Let me do it” Lindsay offered “You've already worked hard enough today.”
I just nodded in agreement, feeling genuinely grateful.
A few minutes later, Emma and Kylie entered the kitchen and glanced at me with a certain suspicion, but ended up sitting next to me, something that had never happened before. Usually, they avoid me.
"Where's Mrs. Anderson?" Emma asked.
"She had to leave earlier today," I explained.
"That's right, today's her daughter's birthday," Kylie remembered. "And Mr. Peterson is off, too."
"That's too bad…" Emma lamented.
"Hello, girls!" Lindsay arrived, all cheerful. "Ready for another exciting night?"
Upon hearing Lindsay's words, I quickly understood why Emma and Kylie were lamenting the absence of both Peterson and Mrs. Anderson in the house. They were planning to go out together that night.
"We can't leave Rachel alone at home with Mr. Joseph..." Kylie lamented.
"You don't need to worry about me," I clarified. "I can stay home just fine, after all, we have security guards stationed at the gate."
"Rachel's right, Kylie," Emma agreed with my point of view. "And Mr. Joseph usually doesn't need assistance during the night."
We all agreed on that, and I noticed that Kylie and Emma were now looking at me differently. Probably because I wasn't creating objections to disrupt their plans for the night. They even felt comfortable chatting in my presence, something they hadn't done since I arrived at the house.
"Did you see the model our boss was celebrating his victory with today?" Emma commented, with a gossipy tone. "She's beautiful and famous."
"Of course, I did!" Kylie replied excitedly. "Tayla Corbin is amazing. They make an incredible couple."
My heart squeezed in my chest because I hadn't seen any of that. I wanted to ask where they saw those photos but remained silent to avoid drawing their attention to me. I didn't want them to even suspect our "history" with Enrico.
"Where did you guys see that?" Lindsay asked the question I was waiting for. "I follow Enrico on social media, and I didn't see anything!"
They were so engrossed in the conversation that they didn't even notice my discomfort.
"All the celebrity gossip pages I follow are talking about it," Kylie explained. "She's very famous, and everything she does ends up in the media."
It was hard to finish the meal after such disturbing news, and I thanked the universe when they went to get ready to go out. I wanted to be alone and see for myself all the beauty of this so-called model.
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