At these words, the whole room fell silent.
Diana looked at Hector in surprise.
“This came out of Hector’s mouth, what’s wrong with him today?”
In the past, he had been indifferent to her feelings, but he only acted coldly, never said words as sharp and harsh as today.
-Brother… -said Diana with a resigned face and eyes full of tears.
Hector took a deep breath, knowing he had just been impulsive.
But he could not stop himself.
His own sister, destitute, on her knees in the snow, with no money to take her foster mother to the hospital, humbly sold herself to Umberto.
But Diana was able to save a small fortune in the Espina family.
The contrast was so stark that she couldn’t help but feel her blood stir.
Antonio gave her a sullen look and slapped her on the back, sounding deliberately stern.
-Hector, how can you talk to your sister like that!
Hector took a deep breath, knowing what his father meant, and said to Diana:
-I’m sorry.
-It’s all right,” Diana wiped away her tears and gave a stubborn, vulnerable smile as she looked at Hector. Brother, have you had problems at work lately?
-Yes,” Hector stammered on the subject, not even bothering to look at her.
He always thought Diana was too fake.
As long as he was a human being, there were times when he could not contain his emotions, and even he himself could get carried away by them. But Diana, when it came to the Espina family, always seemed to be good and understanding.
If Hector hadn’t seen a different side of Diana outside the house, he feared he would have been fooled by this girl as well.
Hector was pondering when he suddenly felt a pain in his calf.
He lowered his head and met Adrian’s angry expression.
His younger brother had just kicked him in the calf.
Hector’s face was a little cold.
-What are you doing?
Adrian was startled by the coldness on his face, but he still braced himself and said:
-You bullied my sister! -I want to avenge her!
Hector grabbed him by the neck and pushed him a little further. His voice was clear and cold.
-She is your sister and I am your brother. You really aren’t polite to me.
-But you were the first one who harassed my sister,” Adrian looked defiantly at Hector.
The brothers’ eyes, extraordinarily alike, were full of stubbornness.
The crowd stared at the two brothers and Doria stood in place with a very faint presence.
Then she spoke hurriedly, averting all eyes:
-Miss Diana, I had better go. Although I have cared for you for more than twenty years, I am only a servant. You must not put Mrs. Bianca and Mr. Hector in a difficult situation because of me.
Diana looked at her with sadness and resignation, put her arms around Bianca and pleaded:
-Mom, please let Doria stay. She may be old, but she can work very well and she can’t eat much. I’m working and I have the money from the last ad, so I don’t need the family’s money and I can keep Doria. Mom, please.
Bianca looked at Diana, who was hugging her sweetly and cuddly, and somehow, she felt extremely uncomfortable.
There was an uneasy discomfort in her heart, as if she had betrayed her daughter.
This thought made her feel guilty.
“Although there is a close and distant relationship, Diana is also the child I have raised for so many years. It can’t be like this, it can’t be like this.”
Hector saw that his mother was in a predicament and was about to say something when suddenly the phone rang.
It was Umberto’s call.
Hector looked up, saw that everyone in the room was looking at him. He apologized and hurried out with his phone.
Antonio did notice his gaze before he left.
“Most likely the call was from Albina’s husband, what’s up?”
He looked at Diana, who was again pleading with Bianca, and spoke:
-Diana, this is something we’ve considered. You shouldn’t put your mother in a difficult situation, so sit down and we’ll think about it.
When Diana saw Antonio’s intention to give in, she was glad, thinking that what she had just said had worked and nodded her head.
Pulling Bianca to sit down, Diana spoke well of Doria again.
Bianca looked at Antonio, who glared at her.
The couple’s years of understanding made Bianca instantly understand what her husband meant, and she went along with Diana’s words to buy time.
Meanwhile, Hector went to the courtyard and answered the phone.
-Umberto, we are in the process of firing Doria? Yes, the nanny from before, why are you calling me right now? Is something wrong with Albina?
-No, Albina is fine,” Umberto sat in his office with a very serious face. I spent the night before investigating. I had all my men investigate what happened back then, I checked half of your list, but there was nothing out of the ordinary.
Hector froze.
-Yesterday you were up all night?! Did Albina find out you were checking this?!
-No, Albina slept well last night. She probably thought I was busy with work -Umberto explained some things and got down to business-. That’s not what I’m going to say, I came up with something in my research. A very important thing!
Hector’s heart skipped a beat at the seriousness in his voice.
-Go ahead.
-At that time, the Espina family was under surveillance, wasn’t it? Where exactly was it installed? Was it known to everyone?
Hector understood what he was asking and hastened to answer:
-No, at that time the Espina family had only one part of the area under surveillance, not to mention others, and very few of the family’s servants knew about it.
-That means there were quite a few blind spots in the surveillance, but only your own family knew exactly which were blind spots, didn’t they?
Hector froze for a moment and nodded:
-Yes.
Then he thought of something and his eyes fluttered.
-You mean… Albina was missing because the Espina family had a rat?
-Yes, most likely the rat was your family’s maid,” Umberto voiced his suspicions, his eyes deepening. Have you checked this aspect before?
-It was checked, but not in detail. Only the group of servants who were there were seen, but none of them had time to do anything, and there was no investigation after that.
At that time, since Albina got lost during the party, they naturally assumed that the culprit had been an outsider attending the party.
After all, the maids spent a lot of time working and had no time for anything.
Could they really be confused?
If that were the case, it wasn’t an outsider who stole and abandoned Albina, but a maid in the family!