The woman's eyes widened in surprise and embarrassment, she abandoned the garlic and stood up hastily, staring at Anna in fear.
"Forgive me, Mrs. Lens, please? I didn't know you were so young, after all, you're the mother of four children..." Anna squeezed her eyes shut and looked for a point of lilac light in the corner of the woman's eye, to test if she had the same gift as her mother, but she saw nothing.
"Why did you mistake me for a maid?"
"Well... Camille wears elegant clothes made from expensive fabrics and is looked after by the best professionals, such as hairdressers and manicurists, while you are wearing casual clothes, just like the rest of us who work for her? Camille doesn't even leave the house, but the clothes that arrive for her... She always looks elegant, even in this hot weather... Not a hair on her head is out of place."
"I think you've now learned that clothes don't define who a person is. But I'm not ashamed of your mistake. A domestic worker is just as important as a millionaire businessman, as far as I'm concerned. You are too important. You help us have time to take care of other things and our business. No need to apologize. But if there's anyone else in the house, take them with you to the mansion and tell them I sent you."
The woman stood still.
"Mr. Lens, he won't like that..."
"I understand my husband." Anna interrupted her impatiently.
"Yes. I'll go right away, and... Thank you for your acknowledgment."
"No need to thank me. Just appreciate what you've got. Where's Camille's room?"
"It's the last one, at the end of the corridor."
Anna nodded and headed there.
The house wasn't big, but the rooms were spacious. It was more luxurious than she had had when Allister died.
She remembered the inheritance her mother had left her and decided that later that afternoon she would go to the bank and redeem it. It wouldn't be fair if the money went unused. And she would use it to go and meet her countrymen. And she would take her children and her husband with her. But she didn't want to reveal any of her feelings or plans. But that day, when she saw Max and Adam together, side by side, she felt that she was undecided about who she would stay with. Adam wasn't the love of her life, but she loved him, and knew that he would make her very happy, and would abandon any dark desires to be with her, and her body yearned ardently and with worrying frequency for the touch of Adam's hands, but Max, she already doubted whether he would be willing to abandon...that. He was the love of her life, but if he didn't prioritize her and their children, he wouldn't be able to make her happy. She would lead an agonizing life with him. She would use the time she still had to observe Adam more closely. She needed to do what was best for her children. And if she felt that her children were being left in the background once again, she would choose to live with Adam. There, in the United States, the laws were more favorable to women, and Max couldn't try to stop her from getting custody of her children. Not that this seemed to matter to him.
Anna only considered that the mother was the legal guardian of all her children, unconditionally, in that country, without knowing that this was not how the laws actually worked.
Anna opened the bedroom door without knocking and walked in to find Camille sitting comfortably, looking disgusted, watching television. When she saw Anna, she stood up hurriedly, fear in her eyes.
Anna recognized her. She'd seen her around the kitchen at home sometimes. It was hard to forget someone with that shade of color in their hair.
"Madam... What are you doing here?" she asked with fear in her voice.
"Are you still asking? You're spreading your legs for my husband, and you ask me, what am I doing here?"
"I... I'm a captive in this place. I'm kept here by force. I have no one to turn to for help to free myself. I don't want this life. I don't want him to... Your husband doesn't allow me to make even one phone call.
Anna approached her and saw what she was watching with a look of disgust on her face. They were pornographic films. She grabbed the remote control that was within her reach and tried to change the channel, without success. Max had programmed it so that she could only watch sadomasochistic films. She was reassured to learn that. Camille was nothing more than an object for his pleasure. And he was making it clear with that provision. She tossed the remote onto the bed and turned to Camille.
"Please, Mrs. Lens, help me get out of here. I want to go back to my country."
"Max had already fucked you in Scotland, Camille. Why did you come here with him?"
"I didn't know I'd be treated like a sex slave by him. That's a crime."
Anna looked at her coldly.
"How did you expect to be treated, Camille? As if you were his wife?"
She was surprised by that question. She was so lost in her own problems that she had forgotten that she was in a situation that she herself had accepted. Even if she thought otherwise, she still had the illusion that one day Max would make her the new Mrs. Lens.
Anna saw in her eyes that she would denounce Max as soon as she was free and safe in her own country.
"If I release you, Camille, how will you get back to your country?" Anna asked in the face of her silence. Camille didn't need to speak. Anna knew deep down that this young woman knew she was in this situation because she had accepted being a married man's bitch.
"I'm going to the embassy."
"And how are you going to do that? Do you already speak the language of that country?"
"I'll need you to help me with that, too. I only know a few words about the language here."