I PRETENDED TO BE “D.E.A.D” TO TEST THE LOYALTY OF MY SHY HOUSEHELP — BUT WHAT I DISCOVERED… WAS DEEPER THAN MY HEART COULD HANDLE.
My name is Alejandro Reyes, 41 years old.
CEO.
Wealthy.
People admire me—
all except one person:
Lina, my quietest and most loyal househelp.
She is shy.
Respectful.
Never talks back.
Never speaks unless necessary.
And in the two years she has worked in my house in Quezon City…
she has never once looked me straight in the eyes.
But there was something about her—
a kind of goodness I couldn’t explain.
And because I had been betrayed many times by people who only pretended to be kind,
a question began to haunt me:
Was she truly loyal?
Or was everything just an act?
That’s when I came up with a plan I never should have made.
THE DECEPTION I THOUGHT WOULD BE SIMPLE
I prepared the plan for a full week:
I would pretend to have a heart attack.
Pretend to collapse.
Pretend I was no longer breathing.
I wanted to see her true reaction.
I wanted to know if she would take care of me…
or run away like almost everyone else.
Would there be panic?
Fear?
A cry for help?
Or…
nothing at all?
One afternoon, I did it.
I lay down on the living room floor of my house—
motionless, silent.
And I waited for Lina to walk in.