Claudio Belles looked at Eduardo Tercero’s tender gaze and said, “At first I thought I didn’t care much about you. But then I thought there were only a few people in the world I related to, I grew up an orphan and had no family. Esteban Zaragosa and Tom Paul were hardly my family.”
“Then Esteban Zaragosa married Dulcina Calvo and Dulcina Calvo was half of my family, and they had a beautiful baby. The baby is very cute and the baby adopted me as his aunt. So little Bo is like family to me.”
“But counting all of them, there are only four in total. But the funny thing is that these four people who are closest to me, except Bao who is a boy, Esteban Zaragosa, Dulcina Calvo, or maybe Tom Paul, they all have their own person and more important thing to guard. That person, it’s definitely not me.”
“If you do the math, it seems that the person who cares most about me in this world is you, President Eduardo. Even when Claudio was an undercover agent, President Edward gave his life to save her. If such an Edward the Third is not appreciated and loved by me, it seems that there is no one in this world who loves me anymore.”
“Because there are very few people close to me, I can’t lose any of them, I don’t want to lose them.”
This time, standing in front of the isolation door, Claudio Belles said so much to Eduardo Tercero, the first time he said so much at once.
Eduardo Tercero’s eyes blushed as he listened.
He understood, he understood everything.
She must have been scared, that’s why she said so much.
Claudio Belles, with hot tears in his eyes, holds the phone and turns his back to her, not looking at Eduardo Tercero, but by the time he turns around, the tears have escaped him.
He says to Eduardo Tercero over the phone, “President Eduardo, can you call me back?”.
Eduardo Tercero tugged the corners of his lips slightly, his eyes dark with emotion, “Claudio.”
“You must live well, ten years ago you promised me you would protect me.”
Eduardo Tercero looked at her back, though he couldn’t see her face, the small choked sound had given her away.
He knew she was crying.
Eduardo Tercero pressed a hand against the glass, touching her through this thick glass door.
It was tempting, hugging her.
“Claudio, I’m very well, don’t cry.”
Claudio Belles took a deep breath and, after getting up to wipe his eyes vigorously, turned to look at Eduardo Tercero in the isolation booth.
Holding the phone in one hand, he pressed one hand against the isolation glass, overlapping with Eduardo Tercero’s palm pressed against the glass.
“President Eduardo, I am waiting for you.”
Eduardo Tercero’s eyes reddened, and under them was a smile.
At his words, he too would live well.
…
After two days of incubation in Eduardo Tercero’s body, the SA virus finally broke out.
Alarm bells rang at the medical center.
Eduardo Tercero’s face became even weaker and paler.
Aurelio is still working on antibodies to fight the SA virus.
Claudio Belles’ call came in again and Eduardo Tercero answered it.
“President Eduardo, how are you today?”
Eduardo Tercero’s voice was weaker and hoarser than usual because of his illness. “Yes.”
When he said this word, Claudio Belles was standing in front of the glass doors of the isolation area, looking at him sitting on the hospital bed.
She was in her blind spot, thinking that he could not see her.
Unbeknownst to him, Edward the Third was looking at the slender figure reflected in the mirror, not far from him, and her movements, her gaze, were in plain view.
Claudio Belles looked at the gaunt man in his hospital gown in the quarantine area and somehow, inexplicably, his eyes reddened.
He knew the SA virus was no joke.
Although she had not studied medicine, she had heard of the horrors of this supervirus from her time with Esteban Zaragosa and Tom Paul.
But she was no coward, and even at this difficult juncture, she smiled reassuringly at him while her eyes were red and asked, “Are you still hanging in there?”
Edward the Third looked at her through the mirror, smiling through his tears, and smiled back, “Of course.”
On the other end of the phone there was a long silence.
Eduardo Tercero saw her hold the phone and cover her mouth with one hand as tears fell in great gushes.
Tears that broke his heart.
Eduardo Tercero finally could not resist comforting her, “Claudio, don’t cry.”
“Don’t cry.” Claudio Belles added, “I used to think there was no one in the world worthy of making me shed a tear.”
“So I’m the first?”
Claudius Belles looked at him gently and smiled slightly. “President Eduardo was the first.”
Eduardo Tercero smiled back.
Claudio Belles did not deceive him or comfort him, not even when Esteban Zaragosa was getting divorced had he been able to cry like that, and now that he thought about it, maybe it was not enough to be moved by a relationship that had not been a loving one.
“In that case, I did have a lot of firsts with President Eduardo.”
The smile on Eduardo Tercero’s face deepened, “There will be many more firsts.”
“Hmm.”
“So now you’re in love with me?”
“Is President Eduardo asking about Claudio, or Claudio Belles?”
“Both.”
Claudio Belles, “Try a little harder.”
“Good.”
Feelings for Edward the Third were not one love, the man who taught eighteen-year-old Claudio what it meant to be pampered, what it meant to defy the odds, what it meant to be in love, who was like a lover and a familiar presence again.
Claudio Belles grew up without family, so he lived a lonelier life than the average child, with no one to give him what he wanted in the Ming organization.
And Eduardo Tercero adores her without principle or condition.
So what reason did she have to refuse to love Edward the Third, who was so good to her?
…
Late at night, Claudio Belles took advantage of the fact that the medical staff in the isolation area was tired and sleeping on the consultation table, Claudio Belles burst into the isolation area wearing an isolation suit, mask and gloves.
When he opened the door and saw the man’s back, Claudio Belles shouted, “President Eduardo”.
Eduardo Tercero, his back to her, startled slightly, but the female voice was very clear, not unlike a phone call over the airwaves.
It was not an illusion.
Eduardo Tercero slowly turned around.
Claudio Belles approached him and threw his arms around his neck.
He had never missed someone so much before.
Although in the morning they had only talked on the phone through the cold glass.
But a phone call and a meeting through the glass did no more to alleviate the longing than such a genuine embrace.
Eduardo Tercero, who was not in control of his emotions but still had his senses, pulled her hand away and looked at her with dark eyes, his voice hoarse and low, “What are you doing here? Go away.”
Claudius Belles took off his mask, looked at him and said stubbornly, “I’m not staying long, I’ll only stay ten minutes and then I’ll leave.”
“Claudio, you really don’t want to die, how did you get in here?”.
Claudius Belles smiled, “Don’t forget that I am also a first class agent, how am I going to overcome such a pedestrian wall alarm. If I want to get in, I’m sure I can get in.”
Eduardo Tercero had forgotten.
Once, at the age of eighteen, Claudio would have dared to enter his studio.
Ten years later, she was mature enough, not to mention just an alarm, so how could it be difficult for him.
Eduardo Tercero looked at her and raised his hand to take off the mask he had torn off and put it back on.
Claudio Belles looked into his dark eyes and said, “I’m not afraid of being infected.”
“I am afraid.”
Two simple words that made his heart pound. “I’m sure Aurelio will take care of the antibodies.”
“I know.” Eduardo Tercero had no doubt about it.
Aurelius feared there was only one rival in this world for his medical accomplishments, and that was Tom Paul of the Ming organization, but the two were indistinguishable from each other, and they had been jovial rivals, one specializing in poisoning, the other in antidotes, and in the end, a hundred rounds of battle, neither had lost, neither had won.