Gianna’s face fell, and she exploded in anger, “What nonsense—”
Wyatt shot her a warning look, and she recoiled a few steps, swallowing the rest of the sentence.
“Anything else?”
“Yes.” Heidi continued in a fit of sobbing, “Once Ms. Marsh came down with a fever, a very high fever. I wanted to phone you, but Ms. Gianna told me not to bother you. I suggested calling a doctor, which she didn’t allow either.
“Ms. Gianna assigned me the task of leaving Ms. Marsh’s meals at her door so she can get them herself. It’s not that Ms. Marsh is a picky eater but that Ms. Gianna told us to limit her servings. She pays us whenever we follow her orders and physically and verbally abuses us if we don’t, claiming that she’s the mistress of the house and that we must obey her.”
Wyatt maintained an expressionless face, but inwardly, he was overcome with the urge to strangle Gianna.
“Are you the only one working for her?” he questioned.
“Her, her, and her. They are under Ms. Gianna’s payroll too.” Heidi pointed at a few housekeepers. “We all take turns bringing Ms. Marsh food.”
Gianna raced over and tried to defend herself. “She’s falsely accusing me, Mr. Lopez! I have no ill will against Ms. Marsh and would never harm her. They’re all conspiring against me!”
“You have to believe me, Mr. Lopez! I’m innocent!” She raised three fingers. “I swear on my entire family that I didn’t do any of the things they accuse me of!”
Wyatt patted her cheek and smiled. “I never said I didn’t believe you. Why are you in such a hurry to swear an oath? The housekeepers did it, after all, and you only verbally abetted them. What good would it do to swear?”
He had seen through Gianna’s ploy, and a chill ran from her toes to the top of her head.
She forced herself to calm down and told herself to insist she was being slandered regardless of what the housekeepers claimed since there were no surveillance cameras.
“What Heidi said is true. Ms. Gianna is behind all of this.”
“Yes, Mr. Lopez. She beats and scolds us if we don’t follow her orders.”
“Mr. Lopez, we didn’t mean to make things difficult for Ms. Marsh. This is simply Ms. Gianna’s animosity toward Ms. Marsh.”
The housekeepers who were initially afraid of Wyatt began to speak up after Heidi exposed the truth, hoping that he would show them leniency.
Gianna paled and quickly played the victim. “Well, you alleged that I abused all of you and mistreated Ms. Marsh. Where’s your proof, then? Do you have wounds on your body to prove that I beat you all?”
The housekeepers’ silence bolstered her confidence, and she straightened her spine. “You don’t have concrete evidence, yet you vilify me!”
“We have proof that you paid us,” one of them said and took out a wad of money from her pocket. “This is what you gave me the day before yesterday when you asked me to turn off the water heater in Ms. Marsh’s room.”
Wyatt’s gaze darkened.
Gianna casually barked a laugh. “I’m never more than a phone call away from having someone go grab something for me. I do not need to leave the mansion, so why would I have so much cash on me?”
Anxiety was reflected in the housekeeper’s voice. “You gave me this money. It has your fingerprints all over it!”
“All right. Let’s have Mr. Lopez get someone to dust it and see if it has my prints,” Gianna said confidently, not at all worried.
Fortunately, I consider skin contact with the housekeepers to be filthy and would always wear gloves when handing them money.
God must be on my side!
The housekeepers couldn’t argue with Gianna, and their eyes started to redden in frustration when they realized the mansion didn’t have surveillance cameras.
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