Back then, I'd thought Walter was honest and hardworking, so I'd handed him a few smaller holdings to manage. I never imagined he'd use them to set up a mistress and an illegitimate son.
"Ms. Black! Are you here to inspect the property? Let me notify the manager right away—"
I raised my hand gently to stop him. "That won't be necessary. This is a personal visit."
With that, I took my daughter's hand and walked straight toward the noisiest part of the community.
I didn't need to search for the right villa. The only one blasting music loud enough to set my teeth on edge told me everything I needed to know.
The closer we got, the louder the commotion grew.
I'd barely reached the front door when the scene before me stopped me in my tracks.
Seeing it in person was something else entirely.
A cluster of parents swarmed around a woman dripping in designer clothes, fawning over her like courtiers around a queen.
Vanity and self-satisfaction radiated from every pore of her face. I didn't need to ask. This was Owen Perez's mother.
"Owen's mommy, why on earth did you invite Carly Black's mother?"
"Exactly! Every parent at this school is somebody. Our kids are the best of the best. Just thinking about that little bastard going to the same school as my child makes me sick to my stomach!"
The woman at the center of it all spoke up, her contempt completely undisguised:
"Oh, I invited her sincerely. But if she actually has the nerve to show up, I'd love to get a good look at the kind of trash that seduced my husband and had the audacity to bear his child!"
By the last word, Maria Henson's eyes were brimming with raw hatred.
Something in me stirred, an involuntary flicker of pity for her. But beneath that pity lay something far stronger: the sheer absurdity of it all.
Walter Perez, a man who'd married into my family with nothing to his name, had her wrapped around his finger without her even knowing it. She sat there like a hen puffing up its feathers in a dying frenzy, pitiful and small, yet impossibly shrill.
I was about to step inside when I heard my daughter's homeroom teacher, her voice oozing with that sickeningly eager, groveling sweetness:
"Everyone, rest assured. As long as I'm at that school, the mistress's brat will never set foot inside those gates again! I've already submitted the expulsion paperwork to the principal. Carly can forget about ever coming back!"