Chapter 3 - The Walk of Shame
The grand hall of the Alcázar mansion was usually a place reserved for elegant, joyous gatherings, but today, it had quickly transformed into a cruel theater of public humiliation. Lucía stood trembling violently in the absolute center of the vast, echoing room, her stark white apron suddenly feeling like a massive target painted directly on her chest.
Two stern-faced police officers, summoned hastily by Valeria’s explicit and demanding orders, flanked the terrified young woman. The cold, heavy metal of steel handcuffs snapped shut around Lucía’s slender wrists, the sharp, mechanical click echoing painfully in the silent room. She had never been in trouble with the law, never even received a simple parking ticket, and now she was being physically restrained and treated like a dangerous, hardened criminal.
"I swear to you... I didn't steal anything," Lucía’s voice was barely a fragile whisper, choked by a thick, suffocating knot of rising panic and absolute disbelief.
Her wide eyes brimmed with hot, stinging tears that eventually spilled over her flushed cheeks, her entire face burning with an unbearable, soul-crushing shame. Surrounding her was a captive audience of elegant family members and wealthy invited guests holding delicate crystal flutes of morning champagne, their faces a sickening mixture of morbid curiosity and polite disgust. Other servants peeked nervously from behind the heavy oak doors, their eyes wide with profound fear, knowing all too well that any one of them could easily be standing in her place.
No one stepped forward to help. No one spoke a single word in her defense. In this isolated world of sprawling wealth and immense power, the silence of the elite was an impenetrable shield that always protected their own kind. Valeria stood just a few feet away, her arms crossed confidently over her champagne satin suit, watching the devastating spectacle with a look of supreme, unsettling satisfaction.
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"Thieves always cry when they are finally discovered," Valeria sneered, her voice dripping with venomous, mocking condescension.
The cruel, calculated words felt like physical, heavy blows to Lucía's chest, knocking the very breath from her lungs. She was completely trapped in a waking nightmare, paralyzed by the horrific realization that her honest truth meant absolutely nothing against the crushing weight of Valeria’s lies.
