Chapter 5 – Andrew Comes to Beg
Three days later, Mariana returned to the mansion.
Not to reclaim it.
To close it.
Escalante Heritage Properties had announced the estate would be sold. A portion of the proceeds would fund legal assistance for victims of financial and domestic abuse.
The decision had spread quickly through the press.
Andrew called it a public attack on his family.
Mariana considered it the first honest use the mansion had ever served.
She entered through the front doors accompanied by her attorney.
The house was dark.
Without staff, the once-perfect rooms looked strangely lifeless.
Dust had begun settling on the marble.
Half-empty glasses still stood on tables from the party.
The broken coffee table had not been replaced.
A faint reddish mark remained on the rug where Mariana’s hand had bled.
She stared at it.
Four years of her life had disappeared into this house.
She had once believed leaving would feel like failure.
Instead, it felt like waking.
“Mariana.”
Andrew stood at the bottom of the staircase.
He looked different without the armor of wealth.
His jacket was wrinkled.
Dark shadows rested beneath his eyes.
His expensive watch was gone.
“You shouldn’t be here,” her attorney said.
“I asked security to let him enter,” Mariana replied.
The lawyer looked at her.
“I wanted to hear what he came to say.”
Andrew approached slowly.
For a moment, neither spoke.
Then he looked at the bruise on her cheek.
“I’m sorry.”
Mariana said nothing.
“I lost control.”
“You struck me twice.”
“I was angry.”
“You ordered me to kneel.”
“I didn’t mean it.”
“You meant every word.”
Andrew lowered his eyes.
He tried another approach.
“I know I made mistakes.”
“Mistakes?”
“Brenda manipulated me.”
Mariana almost laughed.
“Did she move your hand?”
“No.”
“Did she sign the payments?”
Andrew’s jaw tightened.
“Some of them.”
“Did she force you to lie to me?”
“No.”
“Did she make you treat me as if I were beneath you?”
He remained silent.
Mariana walked toward the broken table.
“The first year we were married, your company lost eighty million dollars.”
Andrew looked away.
“You came home every night pretending everything was fine. You stopped sleeping. You started drinking alone in your office. I found the reports.”
“I was going to fix it.”
“You couldn’t.”
“I could have.”
“You were ten days from default.”
Andrew’s face hardened.
Mariana continued.
“I called my father. I asked him to structure the rescue so your name would remain on the company.”
“I never asked you to do that.”
“No. You only enjoyed the result.”
“You should have told me.”
“I tried.”
“When?”
“The night you signed the refinancing agreement.”
Andrew frowned.
“You were drunk. You told me business was too complicated for someone with my background. You told me to leave the decisions to you.”
He remembered.
The memory came slowly and painfully.
Mariana standing at the door of his study with a folder in her hand.
Andrew waving her away.
Margaret laughing from the sofa.
Brenda had not yet entered their lives.
His cruelty had begun long before the affair.
“I loved you,” Mariana said. “That was my failure. I believed loving you meant protecting you from the consequences of your own weakness.”
Andrew moved closer.
“We can start again.”
“No.”
“I’ll go to therapy.”
“No.”
“I’ll confess everything about Brenda.”
“You should.”
“I’ll give you the company.”
“It is not yours to give.”
Andrew’s face twisted with desperation.
“What do you want from me?”
Mariana looked at him.
“The truth.”
“I told you I’m sorry.”
“That is not the truth. That is fear.”
Andrew stared at her.
“You are not sorry because you hurt me. You are sorry because the woman you believed was powerless turned out to hold the power.”
“That’s not fair.”
“Was it fair when you humiliated me before a room full of people?”
“I made one terrible mistake.”
“No, Andrew. You made hundreds of choices. The slap was only the first one you could not hide.”
He reached for her hand.
Mariana stepped back.
That single movement seemed to break something inside him.
“I loved you,” he whispered.
“You loved being loved by me.”
Andrew’s eyes filled with anger again.
It came quickly.
The apology vanished.
“You think you’re better than me now?”
Mariana remained still.
“There you are,” she said.
He realized too late what he had revealed.
Mariana turned to her attorney.
“We’re finished.”
As she walked toward the door, Andrew called after her.
“You’ll regret destroying me.”
Mariana stopped.
She looked over her shoulder.
“I did not destroy you.”
May you like
Her voice carried through the empty mansion.
“I simply stopped saving you.”
