I Caught My Fiancée in the Maid’s Room, but When Something Fell from the Pillow, She Stopped Smiling for the First Time

That evening, when Nathan saw the bruise on his father, Victoria accused me in front of everyone of what she herself had planned.

There was a heavy, sweet smell of medicine in Arthur’s room. A half-full glass of water trembled on the windowsill because the old man’s hand was still touching it. Nathan was kneeling beside the bed and placing a cold compress on his father’s forehead.

“Father, can you hear me?” he asked quietly.

“Maria…” Arthur barely opened his eyes. “There was something bitter in the coffee.”

Victoria stood at the door, wearing a white silk robe, and the diamond on her finger sparkled as if nothing had happened in this room.

“The doctor already said that this is his heart condition,” she said calmly. “Not everyone can accept old age, Maria.”

Her gaze stopped on me.

I was holding Arthur’s towel, and the small package hidden in my pocket hurt my shoulder. Glass vials touched one another. Every clink reminded me that I had taken evidence from Victoria’s room.

“He had the same symptoms this morning too,” I said. “But we did not change the dose.”

Victoria smiled.

“You are not a doctor.”

“I have taken care of his medicines for six years.”

“You have worked in this house for six years,” she said, looking at Nathan. “Perhaps you have grown used to too many things and now think you can save everyone.”

Nathan slowly stood up. Fatigue and fear fought one another on his face.

“Enough, Victoria.”

“I am only saying that Maria has been behaving strangely lately. Today I found your office key in her room. And she was also entering my private room.”

My breath stopped. I really had the spare key, but I had never used it until I came to that drawer.

“Is this true?” Nathan asked me.

“I was trying to protect your father.”

“From what?”

Victoria tilted her head slightly.

“There, you see? She is already inventing conspiracies.”

At that moment Arthur gripped the bed rail.

“The pillow…” he rasped. “Do not leave the left pillow for me.”

The smile disappeared from Victoria’s face in one second, but only I noticed.

“He is confused,” she said quickly.

“What pillow?” Nathan asked.

Arthur could not answer. His eyes closed and he began breathing heavily again.

I looked to the left side of the room. Two large pillows lay there, each with Arthur’s initials embroidered in gold thread in the corner. One of them had its seam slightly open.

Victoria moved toward me.

“Go back to the kitchen, Maria.”

“First I have to make sure he does not need anything.”

“I can take care of my fiancé’s father better than you can.”

Nathan raised his hand.

“Both of you be quiet. I will bring the doctor tomorrow morning.”

I knew that by tomorrow it might be too late. That same night I went up to my room, put the old brass key in my sock, and hid the vials taken from Victoria’s room in a metal tea tin.

I could not lie down on the bed. I held the brown wooden cross left by my mother and thought about how to tell Nathan everything without giving Victoria time to twist my words.

At two in the morning, the sound of breaking glass came from downstairs.

I ran down the stairs and stopped at the kitchen door. Victoria was standing there. In her hand she held my tea tin.

She slowly looked at me.

“Now, Maria,” she said, taking one vial from the tin, “we have to explain to Nathan why this was found in your room…”

And exactly then the door handle at the end of the corridor began to move…

The door opened, but Nathan was not standing there. It was only the wind, yet such fear appeared on Victoria’s face as if the police had entered.

Then she quickly put a finger to my lips.

“Do not make a sound.”

“You did not find this in my room.”

“That no longer matters.”

She put the vial on the table and pushed the tea tin toward me.

“Tomorrow morning everyone will believe that you were poisoning Arthur.”

“Why would you do that?”

Victoria gave a chuckle, but there was no warmth left in the laughter.

“Because Nathan needs someone to blame. And you are the most convenient.”

The smell of her perfume hung in the air, heavy and sweet, like spoiled flowers left in the room. I stepped back, but my back struck the door handle.

“You are killing Arthur.”

“Choose your words carefully.”

“I found all this in your room. The dose was supposed to be increased slowly. It said there that everything would be yours in spring.”

Victoria’s eyes narrowed.

“You can read too?”

“Enough to recognize a murder plan.”

At that moment Nathan’s voice came from upstairs.

“Maria? Where are you?”

Victoria changed her expression in an instant. Her eyes became clouded, she brought her hands to her chest, and shouted loudly:

“Nathan, help me!”

She fell to the floor. The tea tin fell beside her. The vial rolled over the tiles and stopped at the heel of my shoe.

Nathan came down the stairs. First he looked at Victoria, then at the objects.

“What happened?”

“Maria entered my room, stole the medicines, and threatened me,” Victoria sobbed. “She told me that if I did not leave the house, she would tell everyone that I was poisoning Arthur.”

I moved toward Nathan.

“Do not believe her. I found these vials in her drawer.”

“You kept them in your room,” Victoria said quietly.

Nathan picked up the vial. His fingers tightened so much that white knuckles appeared against the glass walls.

“Maria, tell me the truth.”

“This is not in Arthur’s prescription. I took photographs too.”

“Show me.”

I took out the old phone, but the screen was black. It had no charge left.

Victoria smiled immediately.

“What a coincidence.”

Cold poured into my heart. The photographs were in the phone, but the phone had now turned into a useless brick.

“We will take it to the doctor in the morning,” Nathan said.

“Maria must not be here until morning,” Victoria replied. “If she is truly innocent, let her wait for the police in the sitting room.”

Nathan stood silently for a long time. I saw doubt in his eyes. Not hatred toward me, but that terrible confusion when a person believes the simplest lie more easily than the complicated truth.

“Maria, we have to search your room.”

“You can. But before you do that, look at Arthur’s left pillow.”

Victoria’s face changed again.

“The old man is confused.”

“He himself said that we should not leave the pillow for him.”

“Maria, stop this nonsense!” Victoria shouted.

Nathan turned toward her.

“Why does this pillow frighten you?”

She had no answer.

From Arthur’s room upstairs came the sound of the bed bell. Once. Twice. Then it stopped.

All three of us ran up the stairs at the same time.

Arthur was sitting on the bed, holding the opened corner of the left pillow, and among the feathers a small brass key was shining.

“It is not hers,” Victoria whispered.

“Then whose is it?” Nathan asked.

Arthur looked toward me. For the first time all day, his gaze was clear.

“Maria… the closet… the old closet…”

“Which closet do you mean?”

He took something else from inside the pillow: a small dark wooden box with a burned mark on its lid.

Nathan put his hand on the box, but the lock did not open.

Victoria stepped back.

“It is a family item. Do not open it.”

“That is exactly why I will open it,” Nathan said.

He put the brass key into the lock. Before he turned it, Victoria’s phone rang. No name appeared on the screen, only an unknown number.

She did not answer.

The phone rang a second time.

Then a third time.

Nathan looked at Victoria, and the sound of the lock came from the box. The lid slowly rose, and inside were a small recorder and folded documents…

The lid of the box opened completely, and such silence fell over the room that every strike of the wall clock sounded like a separate shot.

Nathan first looked at the documents, then at the small recorder. Its surface was scratched, and Arthur’s initials were written on its side.

“Father, what is this?”

Arthur lowered his eyes.

“The thing I forgot… but that did not disappear.”

Victoria went toward the door.

“These are old things belonging to an old man. Tomorrow we will show everything to the doctor.”

“You are not going anywhere,” Nathan told her.

He said it in such a tone that Victoria could not find a quick answer for the first time.

I picked up the recorder. My fingers were trembling. Arthur’s fingerprint could be seen dusty on the side, as if it had been hidden inside the pillow for years.

“Is anything recorded here?” Nathan asked me.

“I do not know.”

I pressed the button.

First there was crackling. Then Victoria’s voice.

“Increase the dose again. The doctor said he has several months left.”

Another, a man’s voice, answered:

“If he dies soon, suspicion will arise.”

“It has to happen slowly. Nathan will sign everything when he believes that his father is dying naturally.”

Nathan froze. The color disappeared from his face.

The man in the recording asked:

“Is the change to the will ready?”

“Elliot arranged everything. Half of Arthur’s share will pass to me, and the rest will go into my account after the wedding.”

“And the maid?”

Victoria answered with laughter:

“Maria? No one will believe her. If necessary, we will put jewelry in her bag. People like that always look guilty when they work in a rich house.”

The recording stopped.

I looked at Victoria. Her lips had split, but she could not make a sound.

“That is your voice,” Nathan said.

“It is forged.”

“You mentioned Elliot.”

“Someone was imitating my voice.”

“Maria, did you say that you found the recording together with the vials?” Nathan asked quickly.

“No. I found the vials in her drawer. This box was hidden in Arthur’s pillow.”

Nathan unfolded the documents. On the very first page was his father’s signature, but the date was from seven years earlier. It was an old will in which Arthur left all his property to a charitable foundation if someone forced Nathan, against his will, into marriage or the transfer of property.

“Father, why did you not tell me?”

“I told you… many times,” Arthur answered quietly. “But you thought it was my fear.”

Nathan closed his eyes. I stood beside him and for the first time saw not a billionaire, but a son who, because of love, had failed to understand his father’s warnings.

Victoria suddenly dropped her phone on the floor.

“Nathan, listen to me. I made a mistake, but I love you.”

“Did they poison my father out of love?”

“I did not do it! Elliot told me that everything would be safe.”

Everyone in the room looked at her at the same time.

Victoria covered her mouth with both hands. She had said it herself.

Nathan picked up the phone from the table and was about to call the police, but at that exact moment his phone rang. The hospital number appeared on the screen.

“I am Dr. Harris,” a voice said. “We received Arthur’s blood tests. The substance used in your house is not only medicine. It causes gradual damage to the heart.”

Nathan looked at Victoria.

“How many doses did he take?”

The doctor answered:

“That is not the main thing. The main thing is that we found the substance in one of the new syringes brought to our clinic this morning.”

“Who brought it?”

The voice was silent for several seconds.

“Mrs. Torres. Your name is written on the form. And before the police come to you, the clinic cameras show another person who took documents from there…”

A distant alarm sounded in the phone.

The doctor finally said:

“That person is now coming toward your house…”