Bullied Cinderella (Olive Skin Devils Book 2) Read online

  Bullied Cinderella

  Hollie Hutchins

  Contents

  Prologue

  1. Leonardo

  2. Lucia

  3. Leonardo

  4. Lucia

  5. Leonardo

  6. Lucia

  7. Leonardo

  8. Lucia

  9. Leonardo

  10. Lucia

  11. Leonardo

  12. Lucia

  13. Leonardo

  14. Lucia

  15. Leonardo

  16. Lucia

  17. Leonardo

  18. Lucia

  19. Leonardo

  More By Hollie

  Bullied Bride

  Epilogue

  Let’s Be Friends!

  Copyright

  Prologue

  Lucia

  It would have been like any other morning. My sisters and I would wake up at dawn and collect our deliveries of eggs, milk, and bread. We’d make breakfast together and then help our sick mother to the table to eat. One of us would put fresh flowers on the table while the other opened all the curtains in our little house to let in the light of the rising sun. Mornings were hard work and quiet, but once we were all settled around the table together, we would have so much fun we’d briefly forget about all of our troubles and hardships. After breakfast, those of us that had work would leave and see to it. The others would stay behind and take care of mama and the house. We were a team - a family.

  But that morning when I came down the stairs and saw the tears in Jada’s eyes, I knew it would not be like any of those mornings we came to know so well. She stood over the dining table with her hand over her mouth as she held a letter in her hand.

  “It’s Elaina!” she cried. “She’s left!”

  My heart dropped into my stomach. “Left!? Where!? Why!?”

  It was unthinkable. We were supposed to stick together. How could she abandon us in this financial mess? We depended on her for so much. Each one of us had our own part to play, and we couldn’t afford to lose any of that. My heart prematurely filled with anger. I assumed she got tired and gave up. She must have decided to run away rather than sticking it out with her family, for better or worse.

  “She’s gone to the auction,” Jada gasped as she read.

  The conversation from dinner the night before came flooding back to my hazy, still half-asleep mind. Elaina had argued that the auction was a good thing. Rich Columbian families paid a lot of money for contract workers they obtained there. But we all knew better. We had heard the stories of terrible things that happened to women who resorted to the auction as a way to make money to support their families.

  No matter what we told Elaina, she insisted that it was nothing more than exaggerated rumors. She claimed she was the only one with enough education to get a good job through the auction. She had put herself through veterinary school, and while I loved my sister dearly, she had really been on a high horse ever since she finished. Nevermind all of my training as a nurse. I didn’t have an official degree like her, but I had the experience.

  The conversation ended when mother forbade her from ever doing such a thing and went into a coughing fit. We helped her to bed and thought that would be the end of it. As I laid down to sleep that night, Elaina’s adamance about the auction stuck with me. She was the oldest, and she did make the most money- more than me and Jada. She handled most of the finances, though we were not entirely in the dark on how bad it was. Even still, her insistence on resorting to such drastic measures made us think it was even worse than we thought.

  But I wouldn’t have expected her to leave so suddenly in the middle of the night like that. The following days were unnerving. We didn’t know where she ended up or what might have happened to her. Even worse, women were rumored to disappear after going to the auction all the time. We might never see her again. Something terrible could happen to her, and we may have never known.

  Finally, a letter came in the mail. She told us she had gone to work for a nice horse ranch owned by two brothers. She said her accommodations were nice and that they were treating her well. As usual, she promised this would all be better for us in the long run. She wanted to save enough money to take us to America so we could have a better life.

  Our mother had an affair with a rich, married American...our father. We never met him and never knew his name. But Elaina always had it in her head that we’d somehow track him down one day. I knew better. If he wanted us to find him, we would have by now. He was well hidden on purpose. He had probably forgotten we existed, and if we did find him - I doubt he’d care about the state we had been living in ever since our mother brought us back to Columbia as children.

  Jada and Mama breathed a sigh of relief at a word from Elaina. They were still worried about her, but her contract at the ranch would be up in six months. She would send us money as she earned it. We were to stash it away for this ridiculous dream of traveling to the states. It seemed if everything was going well so far, perhaps the rest of her contract would be the same.

  I was just as relieved as they were, but I had other thoughts in mind. Elaina ran off to that auction as if she was some kind of savior or martyr. She always acted like she was the only one who could do anything, as if Jada and I were useless. The nursing jobs I was getting were becoming more sparse. Women with more experience and training were taking all the work, but that was exactly the kind of problem the auction was meant to solve. More work for less experience, which meant less the employers had to pay. But some money was better than none at all.

  Jada and I struggled to keep things afloat as we saved as much of Elaina’s money as we could. Any time I wanted to buy the tiniest extra thing to bring some extra joy into our lives, Jada would scold me and remind me of everything Elaina sacrificed for each and every penny she sent us. All the while, I had my own plan in the works.

  I told Jada that I heard a rumor about some new doctors offices opening up around town and that I was hoping to get a job at one. I started letting her take over most of the care for mama, explaining that once work was more steady for me, she would have to stay home and tend to her on her own. But really, it was Elaina’s letter that I couldn’t get out of my head.

  When our mother and Jada seemed to have adjusted to Elaina’s sudden vanishing act, I began to make a plan of escape for myself. If she could run away in the middle of the night, so could I. And that’s exactly what I did around midnight after Jada and mama were asleep. I packed up a small bag of things, left a note on the table, and set out into the city. At least we all had Elaina’s experience to comfort us. Maybe she was right, and all of those rumors were just hype.

  I found my way to the secretive auction house, which was more like a run-down boarding house. The bed was loud and squeaky with springs poking out of it that hurt my back. The food was terrible and there was no hot water. Nonetheless, I had a roof over my head and food in my stomach. It was good enough.

  I wasn’t there long before the auctioneer told me I had been auctioned off to a rich Columbian family. He paraded me out in front of the three cousins who had placed their bid - Leonardo, Jorge, and Dario. Leonardo stood out to me the most with his tall, slender build and striking eyes. Jorge and Dario were just as attractive, but they didn’t have the same commanding presence as him.

  The auctioneer demanded that I walk back and forth in front of them so they could get a good look at me. I didn’t see what my gait and build or appearance had to do with my performance as a nurse, but I did as I was told. As fine as things may have turned out for Elaina, I was not about to test my luck by arguing or questioning things.

  A buzzing, ye
llow glowing light hung low from the ceiling, shining hot on my face like a spotlight. I marched back and forth just as they told me to through the particles of dust floating through the air. It was awkward and quiet as my heeled boots clicked and clacked with each step across the tiled floor.

  “Mother will never approve,” Jorge whispered to Leonardo, almost too quiet for me to hear.

  “Nevermind her,” he hissed back. “It’s not what she thinks that matters. It’s how well she does caring for Don German.”

  Dario chimed in with something I couldn’t quite catch. Whatever it was made Jorge laugh and made Leonardo very cross. He scolded them and turned to the auctioneer with a loud booming voice.

  “She’ll do fine,” he barked. “And if there are any problems?”

  “Come back to me and I’ll see that we set her straight,” he replied with an ominous grin.

  I felt nervous and afraid, and this was not the sort of thing I pictured from Elaina’s letter. It was hard to believe she stayed in this same building and went through this same process and could still write back to us with such a positive report. I could only hope she was not just one of the lucky few who ended up in a good post and that the same outcome was still possible for me.

  But such hopes faded as they carted me off from the auction building. It was late at night and darkness surrounded us as they shoved me into their car. They crowded in around me and helped themselves to long, greedy stares at my figure. I squirmed in my seat and did my best to shield myself from their eyes, but I dared not say a word. I could not start off on the wrong foot with them.

  The ride to their estate was mostly silent other than the few things they whispered amongst themselves. By all their quiet, discreet jokes, I couldn’t tell if it meant they would be fun to be around once we warmed up to each other, or if it was me they were making fun of.

  It remained a mystery as we arrived at their property. I was handed over to staff members to help me get settled in and the cousins vanished. An older, heavyset woman named Camila was charged with showing me around and seeing me to my room. She walked fast and talked even faster. My head spun as she spouted off directions. Once I realized she was giving me orders on the patient I would be caring for, I had to speak up.

  “Disculpe, señora,” I interjected timidly. “Sorry to interrupt, but could you speak a little slower? I can barely keep up with where we are in the house, much less what you’re telling me. I wouldn’t want to do anything wrong and…”

  She cut me off in a huff and rolled her eyes. “This is exactly what we get when we get help from that damned auction. A bunch of incompetents…” Her words trailed off into a stream of expletives that I couldn’t entirely make out. “Look, everything will make more sense in the light of day. We’ll go over everything more than and you’ll meet Donña Angela. She’ll want to be the one to give you all the instructions anyway. But you’ll have to be sharp in front of her, Miss. You understand? I’m only trying to give you an advantage. Don’t dally with her, and certainly don’t ask her to slow down or repeat herself. She’ll have you thrown out on your ass before you can bat those pretty lashes of yours.”

  I was angry and embarrassed and didn’t know how I could possibly respond to redeem myself. Somehow I had already messed up, and I had only just got there.

  “About the patient...You were saying?”

  She started marching through the halls of our quarters again, talking even faster than before. “Don German. He’s healthy but in a wheelchair. He’s a war veteran. You’ll be his caretaker...serving him meals, taking him around the estate...You’ll be his right hand. Whatever he asks, you do. Got it?”

  “Got it,” I nodded confidently, even though a huge lump was forming in my throat.

  Before I knew it, I was shoved off into one of the bedrooms and told to report downstairs at precisely six o’clock in the morning. That’s when Donña Angela and Don German would be waiting for my official introduction, but I would start much earlier on most days. German still went by military schedule and liked to rise with the sun. But for tomorrow I was expected to be well-rested, well-groomed, and dressed in my uniform - ready to get to work.

  I did my best to settle my nerves with a long bath, but there was no hot water. Our rooms weren’t well-heated either, so I was freezing by the time I climbed into the stiff, crisp sheets of my bed. I missed my warm hand-stitched quilt on my bed at home and the comfort of my own room already. My head was spinning with fears and doubts as I tried to close my eyes to sleep. Had Elaina lied? Had I made a mistake? Everything happened so fast and...I missed home more than ever.

  1

  Leonardo

  With the new caregiver turned over to the rest of the staff to get her settled in, my cousins and I retreated to our private space in the basement. Late at night when the rest of the house was fast asleep, we could go to our little downstairs parlor to drink and throw darts. We’d carry on for hours late into the night, but that night’s conversation was particularly juicy. We had a new young pretty face around the house to discuss.

  “She was hotter than I expected,” Jorge mused over his mug of beer.

  “So hot!” Dario agreed, waving his hands through the air, mocking the shape of her curves. “Just the way I like them. Dark, petite but curvy.”

  Our words drifted to dirty thoughts as we each grunted lustfully, but I was not about to be so vocal about my attraction to her. My mother hated it when we went on about the staff, no matter how gorgeous or subservient they were. They could be appreciated for their work ethic and nothing else, and even that was always questionable by Angela’s standards.

  “I give her a month. Maybe less,” Jorge added. “If she isn’t fired by then, she’ll be so lonely and aching for a man that it’ll be easy to steal her away for some action in a closet somewhere.”

  “You know Mother would kill you if she ever found out about you fucking the staff,” Dario cautioned, rolling his eyes.

  “Only the cute ones,” he argued.

  “Well, try not to get this one fired,” I snapped. “Now don’t we have anything better to talk about?”

  Our mother was strict, to say the least, and she played her cards well. We were grown men and didn’t like to be controlled by her, but she was very good at guilting us into doing just that. Any time we questioned her too much, the tears would start and the handkerchief would come out. She’d cite everything she’d done for us and how important family was.

  Jorge and Dario lost their parents in an accident when they were very young. My parents stepped up to take in the two orphans, but tragedy struck our family once again when my father died of a heart attack. My mother never let us forget that she was left on her own to raise the three of us. Of course, she had a fortune behind her and a whole staff of nannies and housekeepers to help.

  But that didn’t stop her from keeping a close watch on us. You couldn’t blame Jorge for wanting to fool around with the staff. We weren’t allowed to hang around anyone else outside of our affluent high society friends, and the women in that lot were stuck up and boring - exactly what Angela wanted for us. Just not the most entertaining company to keep.

  Every time she caught Jorge, or any of us, making eyes at one of the maids, they’d be fired soon after. A caregiver for our father wouldn’t be so easily replaced, and I wanted things to be calm for a little while.

  But it was my own wandering eyes that I found myself worrying about the next morning when I walked through as Angela was giving the new girl a rundown on her job requirements. She had given Lucia the most hideous dirt brown dress and stockings to wear because of her fears about us fraternizing with the staff. It literally looked like she was wearing a brown paper bag sewn into a sad excuse for a garment.

  But even under that ridiculous uniform, you could see the curve of her breasts and hips. I was starved for female companionship, and couldn’t help but stop and take in the scene, even if I had to keep my urges well hidden. It would be entertaining to see Angela la
y into her if nothing else.

  “You’ll wake up each morning at three o’clock sharp to get ready for the day. I expect you showered and well-groomed when you report to the kitchen at four on the dot,” she barked, pacing back and forth in front of Lucia. “You will help the cooks prepare my father’s breakfast. They will give you the specifics of his diet and allergies. You’ll also be responsible for gathering his morning pills and ensuring that you deliver them to him with his breakfast tray.”

  She went on and on with the most painfully specific details about when and how his blinds were to be drawn, how his pillows should be fluffed, and the exercises she was expected to lead him in each afternoon. Angela had every detail of his day planned down to the tiniest thing, not so much for his benefit - but as a test for the new caregiver.

  “Surely you can understand why each and every specification is so important,” Angela concluded with a disgusted look of discernment. “If it’s too much for you, we can always find someone else to fill the position. We’ve been very charitable in giving you a chance at all.”

  “No, not at all,” she answered quickly. “I won’t let you down.”

  “Hmmph. It will take more than your meaningless words to convince me. I’ll be watching you very closely. One misstep and I’ll have you back to the auction house before you can blink, and you’ll be expected to pay back every penny of what you earned up until then.”

  “Yes ma’am. Thank you.”

  She spouted off a number of other insults and doubts as she finished giving Lucia her instructions, then she sent her on her way to dive straight into the rest of our grandfather’s morning routine. By then, Jorge and Dario had gathered to watch the spectacle. Each of us were staring at what we could make out of her ass in that hideous frock as she walked away, wheeling German’s chair in front of her.