.
But he could not forget it.
Alicia had arrived at the Robles household when she was nine years old. Her father, Don Ernesto Robles, a provincial lawyer, remarried three years after becoming a widower. He believed his new wife would bring order and warmth to the home.
Doña Mercedes did bring order.
What she never brought was love.
She arrived with two daughters from her previous marriage: Rebeca, serious and proper, and Zulema, beautiful, ambitious, and fully aware of it from a very young age.
Doña Mercedes’s cruelty was never scandalous.
She never raised her voice.
She never struck anyone.
She never made dramatic scenes.
Her method was more refined: a compliment withheld, an opportunity redirected, an invitation that never reached the right hands.
The kind of cruelty practiced with gloves.
Alicia quickly learned to make herself useful.
At twelve she was already helping with the store accounts.
At fifteen she organized the staff schedules.
At eighteen, after her father’s death, she carried much of the weight of the household without ever receiving credit.
Don Ernesto’s will clearly stated that Alicia must be protected and provided for until she married.
Doña Mercedes read that line very carefully.
And decided to interpret it in her own way.
Alicia would have a roof.
She would have food.
She would have enough dresses not to bring shame.
