The Accidental MAID

Chapter 3

Briar POV 

After closing the door behind her, Briar hurried straight toward her car parked along the roadside several meters away from the house.

All she wanted was to leave the place as quickly as possible.

The moment she lowered herself into the driver's seat, a sharp pain shot through her backside.

"Ouch..."

She winced and gripped the steering wheel tightly.

This was definitely not a good idea.

But she had no choice.

There was no way she would stay any longer and risk Mr. Carvalho seeing her still lingering outside his house after embarrassing herself so badly.

Carefully adjusting her position, she started the engine and slowly drove toward the main road leading back to the city of Santa Catarina.

The drive would take more than an hour.

And every single bump on the road felt like torture.

She bit her lower lip each time pain spread through her aching derrière.

She was one hundred percent certain it was swollen by now.

Possibly bruised too.

"Great," she muttered under her breath. "Just perfect."

The whole situation still felt unreal.

If only she had listened to her instincts and left the house immediately after finishing the cleaning, none of this would have happened.

Mr. Carvalho would never have seen her sprawled awkwardly on the floor like an idiot.

Her face burned again at the memory.

Especially when he angrily asked what the hell she was doing behind the door.

Honestly, she had been too embarrassed to answer properly.

And before she could even recover from the shock, he suddenly picked her up like she weighed nothing and carried her to the couch.

She groaned softly in humiliation.

Thankfully, she had already showered and changed out of her housekeeping uniform before he arrived.

If not, she probably would have died from embarrassment right there on his expensive marble floor.

Briar released a long, deep breath and focused on the road ahead.

She decided not to stop by the office tonight anymore.

Instead, she would simply call Olga later.

Olga was both the secretary of Shine Bright Housekeeping and one of her closest friends.

At this point, Briar could barely survive the drive home.

Another extra stop would finish her off completely.

Poor booty, she thought dramatically.

Despite the pain and embarrassment, a small smile escaped her lips.

What a ridiculous day.

Still...

None of it really mattered.

She would probably never see Mr. Carvalho again anyway.

After tomorrow, she would return to Switzerland, where she worked and lived most of the year.

That was the only reason she even ended up cleaning his vacation house in the first place.

When her Aunt Lenna panicked because Aurora—the actual assigned housekeeper—had suddenly gotten sick, Briar volunteered to help.

At first, her aunt strongly refused.

"But Briar, you came here for a vacation," her aunt protested. "Not to do work you're unfamiliar with."

Briar laughed softly at the memory.

"My dear Aunt, I grew up in a house without helpers," she had patiently explained. "And back in Switzerland, I do all the cleaning myself. Cleaning Mr. Carvalho's house won't kill me."

"That's a huge house," her aunt insisted. "It's two stories. You'll be exhausted."

"Auntie, my actual work is physically harder than cleaning," Briar replied confidently. "Trust me. I can handle it."

Her aunt sighed heavily in frustration.

"If only Aurora didn't get sick," she complained. "All the other girls are fully booked until next week, and Mr. Carvalho needs the vacation house ready this weekend."

Briar crossed her arms stubbornly.

"Well, right now you only have two choices, Auntie. Either lose one of your best-paying clients... or send me."

Her aunt stared at her helplessly.

Briar already knew she had won.

"I'll stay there while cleaning," she continued firmly. "That way I can finish everything on time."

And in the end, Aunt Lenna finally gave in.

For three straight days, Briar cleaned the massive two-story vacation house by herself.

Surprisingly, she managed just fine.

She worked carefully and thoroughly because she refused to let her aunt's business reputation suffer because of her.

No matter what task she did, Briar always gave her best.

That was simply how she was raised.

Thinking about it now, she suddenly realized something else.

Why on earth did she introduce herself as Aurora earlier?

She groaned softly.

The real Aurora was supposed to be the assigned housekeeper, not her.

But then again...

Aurora wasn't entirely wrong.

Her full name was Briar Aurora Valencia.

Her mother had named her after Princess Aurora from Sleeping Beauty—also known as Briar Rose.

So technically...

it wasn't really a lie.

"Well," she murmured with a small, amused smile, "close enough."

The embarrassment from earlier slowly faded as she continued driving.

To calm herself, she softly hummed one of her favorite Christian worship songs.

The familiar melody relaxed her mind.

Instead of going to the office first, she decided to head directly home to her grandparents' house, only a few blocks away from Shine Bright Housekeeping.

Right now, she had one urgent priority.

Checking whether her poor aching butt had turned purple already.