Chapter 7 - THE OTHER MAID
The first person to recognize Nina on television was not a reporter.
It was a woman named Maria Santos.
Fifty-six years old.
Home health aide in Queens.
Former Romano House maid.
Nina received a letter through her attorney six weeks after Evelyn’s sentencing.
Not addressed to Victor.
Not Lucia.
To Nina.
I believe she tried to do to you what she did to me.
Nina almost stopped reading.
Maria wrote that she had worked at Romano House fourteen years earlier.
For nine months.
Lorenzo was recovering from heart surgery.
Victor was eighteen and away at university much of the time.
Evelyn managed the household.
One evening Lorenzo collapsed after dinner.
Not poisoned.
Medical records later showed medication interaction and dehydration.
But at the time, a bottle of prescription pills was found in Maria’s cleaning cart.
Not hers.
She was questioned.
Fired.
No charges eventually.
Still.
The house agency blacklisted her.
Why?
“Security concern.”
Maria spent years working temporary jobs before rebuilding.
She had always believed someone planted the bottle.
No proof.
Until she saw Nina’s story.
Nina brought letter to her lawyer, then Detective Ortiz.
Ortiz reopened old file as background inquiry.
Not automatic criminal case.
Records thin.
Statute issues.
But pattern relevant perhaps to civil claims and institutional review.
Maria agreed to interview.
Victor attended only after Maria consented.
That mattered.
They met in neutral legal office.
Maria entered, saw Victor, and went stiff.
He stood.
“Ms. Santos.”
She did not shake his hand.
Good.
He sat.
Maria looked at Nina first.
“You look younger in person.”
“So do you.”
Maria laughed.
Tension broke slightly.
Then her story.
Lorenzo had been irritable after surgery.
New medications.
Diet restrictions.
Evelyn often adjusted his schedule despite nurses’ instructions.
Maria once saw Evelyn remove pills from organizer.
She reported to household nurse.
Nurse said Evelyn had authority.
A week later Lorenzo collapsed.
Hospital found he had taken two medications too close together.
Could happen accidentally.
Then security searched staff areas.
A bottle associated with one medication found in Maria’s cart.
Maria said she had never touched it.
Evelyn told security:
“Maria has been hovering around Lorenzo.”
Victor closed eyes.
Maria continued.
“Your father didn’t accuse me.”
Victor looked.
“What did he do?”
“Nothing.”
Worse.
Lorenzo was sick.
Tired.
He let Evelyn and security handle.
Maria was terminated same night.
No police arrest because hospital said collapse consistent with accidental interaction and there was no evidence Maria administered anything.
Still agency record marked.
Maria tried to contest.
Romano lawyers offered severance if she signed confidentiality and resignation acknowledgment.
She needed rent.
She signed.
Nina looked sick.
Again.
Vulnerable employee.
Cash.
Narrative.
Silence.
Maria handed over old agreement.
Independent counsel reviewed.
Confidentiality likely enforceable around settlement terms but could not necessarily prevent lawful testimony about wrongdoing depending.
Maria had already spoken with counsel.
Good.
Then a detail.
The bottle found in her cart carried only her fingerprints?
No.
Maria never saw forensic report.
Security internal log, recovered from archives, stated fingerprints inconclusive.
So why fire?
Risk.
Convenience.
Evelyn’s note:
Terminate quietly. Lorenzo needs stability, not staff drama.
Stability.
Again.
Victor asked:
“Did you think Evelyn planted it?”
“Yes.”
“Did you see her?”
“No.”
Good.
No exaggeration.
“Then why believe?”
“Because she asked me two days earlier if I needed extra money.”
Nina stared.
Exact.
Maria said she laughed and said everyone needs money.
Nina’s skin prickled.
Same script.
Then envelope?
Yes.
Three hundred dollars cash in Maria’s locker.
She assumed bonus.
Spent it.
Unlike Nina.
After collapse, security cited unexplained cash as possible evidence someone paid her.
No source established.
Maria cried.
“I thought I was stupid for taking it.”
Nina reached across table.
“You weren’t.”
Maria looked at her.
“I needed groceries.”
There.
Poverty turned into suspicion again.
Victor looked sick.
This was not one night.
Evelyn had used the same architecture before.
Maybe not same crime.
But same scapegoat logic.
Find low-power worker.
Create unexplained cash.
Associate with incident.
Use reputation gap.
Detective Ortiz cautioned:
“We can prove similarity. We cannot yet prove planting fourteen years ago.”
Victor nodded.
He had learned.
Maria asked him:
“Do you believe me?”
He paused.
“I believe you were treated unfairly based on records I’ve seen. I don’t know who placed the bottle.”
Maria considered.
Then nodded.
Better than emotional promise.
Romano Group opened independent review of former household employee complaints.
Victor wanted it private to protect workers.
Nina said:
“Ask them.”
So notices went confidentially to former staff:
If you experienced unexplained discipline, accusation, or coercive settlement at Romano residences, independent ombudsman available.
No press.
No obligation.
Nine responses.
Most ordinary employment grievances.
Two serious.
Maria.
And a former driver, Thomas Reed, accused of leaking paparazzi photos twelve years earlier.
He denied.
Fired.
Later photos traced to a publicist Evelyn used?
Emails showed her office had quietly provided location to press to generate sympathy during family charity campaign.
Driver may have been blamed incorrectly.
Not crime necessarily.
Pattern of sacrificing staff reputation to protect family narrative.
Another housekeeper alleged Evelyn asked her to sign false statement saying Lucia once called house “raving” eight years earlier.
Housekeeper refused and quit.
That was significant.
Evelyn had tried to create future evidence against Lucia long before dinner.
Her name:
Ana Morales.
She had saved a voicemail.
Evelyn:
I only need you to confirm what you heard. You remember how upset she sounded.
Ana had never spoken to Lucia.
She replied in voicemail:
“I don’t know her.”
Evelyn:
Then forget it.
Simple.
No threat.
But attempt.
Corporate counsel turned over to prosecutors? Evelyn sentenced already; could affect appeals, probation, civil.
Lucia listened.
Eight years earlier.
Evelyn had been building.
Victor asked:
“Did you call house then?”
Lucia thought.
“Yes.”
She called asking for Lorenzo.
A staff member answered.
Who?
Maybe not Ana.
Lucia was upset.
But not raving.
Evelyn wanted witness.
Again.
Real event stretched into narrative.
Then Maria’s case.
Romano Group offered compensation.
Maria distrusted.
“What do I have to sign?”
Independent ombudsman said:
No confidentiality on facts.
Release of civil employment claims only if settlement accepted.
Independent lawyer paid by company through fixed legal-assistance fund with no control over counsel.
Better.
Maria negotiated.
She received compensation for wrongful termination and lost employment opportunity.
Not life-changing billionaire money.
Meaningful.
More important:
Romano House sent correction to agency stating prior security designation unsupported by evidence.
Maria cried.
She had spent fourteen years believing former employers would always see invisible stain.
Now record corrected.
Nina watched.
That felt more important than press calling her brave.
Then Victor made mistake.
At a board meeting he proposed naming employee-protection program after Nina and Maria.
Nina said no.
Maria said absolutely not.
Victor blinked.
“Why?”
Maria answered:
“Because then every person who uses it thinks they have to become a story.”
There.
Program became simply:
Independent Household Employee Advocacy Office.
Boring.
Good.
Nina worked nowhere near it.
No burden.
Then another old record surfaced.
Lorenzo had written a note after Maria’s firing:
I don’t think the girl did it. Evelyn says keeping her creates risk.
Victor stared.
His father suspected.
Did nothing.
Again.
Lorenzo’s pattern.
Knowing enough.
Choosing convenience.
Victor began to see his father less as man manipulated by Evelyn and more as active participant in culture she perfected.
Lucia said:
“Good.”
He glared.
“What?”
“You keep wanting one villain because then you can preserve him.”
Victor looked away.
True.
If Evelyn caused everything, Lorenzo could remain weak but good.
Records refused.
He lied.
Threatened Lucia.
Accepted forged transfer.
Allowed staff scapegoats.
Protected company.
Also loved Victor.
Built jobs.
Funded hospitals.
Taught him to sail.
Sat beside his bed with flu.
Whole person.
Victor hated whole people.
Villains simpler.
Nina noticed him growing quieter.
One day in foundation elevator he asked:
“Do you hate Evelyn?”
Nina almost laughed.
“That’s inappropriate.”
He looked surprised.
She continued.
“You’re my employer’s CEO asking me how I feel about your stepmother.”
“Fair.”
Then she answered anyway.
“I don’t know her well enough to hate her.”
“She tried to frame you.”
“Yes.”
“I would hate her.”
“That sounds exhausting.”
Victor smiled.
Nina continued.
“I’m angry. I was scared. I don’t want her near me. That’s enough.”
No need hatred for boundaries.
Victor carried that to therapy.
Yes.
He started therapy.
Lucia suggested.
He almost fired suggestion itself.
Then went.
The therapist asked:
“What would happen if you stopped trying to decide whether each family member was good or bad?”
Victor answered:
“I would have nothing to organize.”
Exactly.
He learned slowly.
Then Evelyn appealed conviction.
Normal.
Some counts challenged.
Not moral betrayal.
Legal right.
One obstruction count later reduced due jury instruction issue.
Other convictions stood.
Victor initially saw reduction as injustice.
Lucia said:
“Court corrected law.”
“But she did it.”
“Then prove it under right instruction if retried.”
Prosecutors declined retrial on minor count because sentence unaffected materially.
Victor hated.
Accepted.
Systems need rules even when outcomes frustrate.
Then Maria sent Nina a text:
Record corrected.
Two words.
May you like
Nina smiled.
That was victory small enough to trust.
