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Exhausted Housekeeper Fell Asleep In A Hotel Bathtub—Then The Billionaire CEO Walked In / Chapter 3 / 10

Chapter 3 - The Midnight Shift

Maria spent the entire day in a state of terror. Every time the elevator bell dinged, her stomach executed a violent triple-flip. She waited for security to escort her out, for HR to hand her a pink slip, or worse, for a bill for the "emotional distress" caused to the billionaire CEO's porcelain tub.

Instead, when she clocked in for her night shift at 11:00 PM, her supervisor handed her a new uniform jacket, a locker key to the newly renovated downstairs lounge (which now featured actual comfortable couches, a microwave, and coffee machines that didn't taste like burnt metal), and a strange piece of news: “Your split shifts are cancelled, Lopez. Effective tonight, straight eight hours, higher pay. Don't ask me why, corporate sent down an emergency memo.”

Maria stared at the paper as if it were written in ancient Greek.

Around 2:00 AM, she was pushing her cart down the twenty-second-floor corridor, still half-expecting a trap. As she approached the double doors of the presidential suite, she noticed the door was cracked open.

A light flickered inside.

Heart hammering against her ribs, she pushed the door open with her hip, armed only with a bottle of glass cleaner.

Victor Torres was sitting on the edge of the living room sofa, shirt sleeves rolled up to his elbows, reviewing architectural blueprints. He looked up as the door swung.

"You're late," he said dryly.

Maria froze, her knuckles white around the spray bottle. "I—what? I'm on schedule! I didn't even go near the bathroom tonight, I swear! I stayed twenty feet away from the tub!"

Victor stood up, sliding his hands into his pockets. He looked at her—really looked at her—without the fatigue of the previous night clouding his features. Up close, he was intimidatingly handsome, with sharp jawlines and eyes the color of stormy Atlantic water.

"Relax, Lopez," he said, walking slowly toward her. "The tub is safe. In fact, I had it cleaned twice just to be thorough."

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For twelve years, my mother had persuaded everyone in our hometown that I'd turned my back on my family to build a career in the Navy. At my father's memorial service, she publicly shamed me in a packed church and ordered me to take off my military uniform. I was ready to walk away when a retired general rose from his seat with Dad's final letter in his hand and said, "Before you humiliate your daughter one more time, Helen, these people deserve to know the truth."

For twelve years, my mother had persuaded everyone in our hometown that...

My husband sl3pped me across the face in front of his entire family and shouted, “Get out of my house! You don't belong here anymore!” Behind him, my mother-in-law smiled with satisfaction, certain she had finally succeeded in driving me away. What neither of them knew was that I secretly owned the mansion they were standing in—and the $10,000 my mother-in-law spent every month on designer clothes, luxury holidays, and personal comforts came straight from my bank account. They thought they were throwing out a helpless woman. They had no idea they were about to lose everything…

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gifts to “the grandchildren who made us proud this year,” and my two kid...

"Are you... are you going to fire me?" she whispered, her voice cracking slightly.

"Fire the woman who single-handedly exposed our broken scheduling system?" Victor stopped two feet away from her. "Why would I do that? I should give you a bonus."

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Chapter 4 - The Shadow Protocol
Chapter 5 - Upstairs and Out of Bounds
Chapter 6 - The High-Society Gala
Chapter 7 - The Shadow of Doubt
Chapter 8 - The Crisis at the Grand
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