Chapter 3 - The Caregiver's Heart
One night at the dinner table, Michael asked Sophie how Ethan, her twelve-year-old brother, was holding up. She helped provide for him after their mother fell ill.
Olivia slowly placed her dinner fork down. Once Sophie had exited the dining room, she asked, “Since when do you care so much about her personal life?”
“Since I started taking the time to ask.”
“You never used to care.”
Michael took a slow sip from his water glass. “Perhaps I always should have.”
Olivia smiled back at him. But the smile never reached her eyes.
From that exact moment, her behavior started to shift. Whenever they had company over, she referred to Sophie as “my dear” and loudly complimented her efforts. But the second no one important was around to hear, her tone shifted back to ice.
The next Monday, she instructed Sophie to sort the leftover wedding invitations by city. A couple of hours later, with Michael standing close by, she faked a look of total surprise.
“I specifically told you to arrange these alphabetically.”
Sophie’s face lost its color. “Ma’am, you explicitly said by city.”
Olivia let out a condescending little laugh. “Do not invent things, Sophie. Redo them.”
Michael just watched. He remained silent.
Two days later, while eating breakfast, his father, Robert, casually mentioned, “Olivia mentioned that Sophie has been incredibly distracted recently. Perhaps you ought to hire a replacement before the wedding.”
Michael raised his eyes. “Sophie?”
May you like
“Yes. She apparently makes a ton of errors.”
That did not align at all with what he had been witnessing. And right then, he realized a truth that sent a freezing chill straight down his spine: Olivia was not merely mistreating Sophie; she was methodically crafting a fake narrative so that, when the moment finally arrived to fire her, everyone in the house would assume Sophie was entirely to blame.
