Severo Laris saw the message Paula Rouco had sent him and was about to respond when his phone rang.
The caller ID showed a landline number from the old house.
Severo Laris answered, “Hi, Mom.”
On the other end of the line, Modeste’s voice was a bit panicky: “Hey Severo, don’t come back for the year-end holidays this year.”
Severo Laris frowned, “What’s wrong, Mom? I’ve booked a flight back the day after tomorrow.”
“Marshal Chan. The officer called me and told me that your father finished his sentence two days ago, eight years ago, Severo, and this time, I won’t let him hurt us, mother and son. So don’t come back and never, never let yourself be found by him.”
In Severo Laris’ heart, with a sinking feeling, he said calmly, “Fine. But he’s in The Holy City, Mom, so why don’t you come to the Imperial. ”
Modeste said, “We switched places eight years ago, Cordoba City is so far away that he won’t be able to find it, but you, I’m afraid, will find your school, Severo, you must be careful.”
After exchanging greetings with his mother, Severo Laris hangs up the phone and stands still, for a long time.
Eight years have passed and he has been released after serving his sentence.
However, he is no longer the child he was and his mother is no longer as weak as before, so his new life will not end with the man’s release from prison.
Severo Laris’ eyes were cold and somber, and his fingertips gripping the phone were blue and white from the force.
…
Leopoldo arrived in Imperial on the green train and pulled out the old newspapers he had collected in his rag bag and smoothed out the crumpled ones.
The young man from the newspaper, dressed in a modest, generous white shirt and black pants, with a tie, stood in the living room, calm and collected, with painted eyebrows, cool and handsome, imposing.
The newspaper was talking about the rape case that Severo Laris had won not long ago, and which had brought him fame.
“Heh, the brat, he’s having fun.”
Leopoldo grimaced and looked at the bottom of the paper: the data of Severo Lawyer, Bufete S, R, L.
“I can’t believe you opened a law firm, you’ve grown in stature.”
Leopoldo leaves the train station and boards the bus.
On the bus, he pulls out the old-fashioned cell phone and dials the number of the newspaper.
…
Severo Laris was receiving a client at the law firm when the phone rang at the firm’s reception desk.
“Hello, hello, this is Bufete S, R, L.”
Since it had been eight years since he had seen him and the boy’s voice had changed a bit as he had grown older, Leopoldo didn’t realize at first that it was his son, Severo Laris.
Leopoldo said, “I want to see your lawyer Severo, Severo Laris, put him on the phone.”
Severo Laris was momentarily struck by the arrogant and insolent voice that came over the phone, and although it had been eight years since he had seen him, he still heard Leopoldo’s voice at first.
Severo Laris’ gaze intensified a few shades, glowing with a cold, sharp light, “You’re looking for Severo Lawyer, what is it?”
On the other end of the phone, Leopoldo laughed, a sly, mocking laugh, “I’m the real father of your Severo Lawyer, and I’m looking for him, for support, of course! Have your Severo Lawyer come and answer the phone.”
Severo Laris’ eyes raised waves of fear, deeper than the sea, and cold, hard words came from his thin lips, word for word: “Are you worthy?”
Leopold was stunned, and only then did he realize, with hindsight, that perhaps the person on the other end of the line was his wonderful son, Severo Laris.
He snorted contemptuously, “Whether he is worthy or not, I am his real father, he cannot escape me in this life, he must bear the responsibility of supporting me, even if he sues the court, he cannot escape.”
As if it were a poisonous spell.
Resounding in Severo Laris’ ears.
The feeling of having hated someone, which Severo Laris did not have before, is now there.
…
Leopoldo stood guard at the entrance of the S, R, L Law Firm for two days and was bombarded once by Rufio, who squatted by a flower bed on the side instead of at the entrance of the S, R, L Law Firm.
Severo Laris was so annoyed that he couldn’t come to work at the firm.
Rufio told Severo Laris to stay hidden.
But Severo Laris knew that was not the fundamental solution, that he could hide from him for a day or two, but not for the rest of his life, unless Severo Laris didn’t show up in court, didn’t work and cut off all business.
So Severo Laris took the initiative and made a phone call to Leopoldo: “Let’s get together and talk about what you want.”
The address of the appointment, a private club next to the S, R, L Law Firm, is highly confidential and was arranged by Rufio.
Inside the clubhouse, Leopoldo looked coquettishly at Severo Laris’ well-dressed appearance, “You’re a useful student, you’ve done well over the years, you’ve even opened a law firm.”
Severo Laris’ face was expressionless as he said coolly, “I am not the owner of the firm and it is useless for you to brag.”
“Hmph, what do I need your law firm for, I don’t want your law firm.”
Severo Laris cuts to the chase and asks, “How much do you want?”.
Leopoldo frowns and looks at him with mock sadness, “You are my son, is it appropriate for you to ask me such an emotionally hurtful question?”
“What is appropriate or not for a man like you, say how much.” It was clear that Severo Laris had no patience for further tangling with him and was impatient.
Leopoldo laughed lightly and said, “I don’t want your money, I already told you, I just want you to support me, that’s not too much, right Severo Lawyer?”
Under the table, Severo Laris’ hand, clenched into a fist, his face, impassive, bargained with him with a mechanical indifference, “What kind of support do you call maintenance?”
Leopoldo said brazenly, “I’m going to live with you, you’re going to cook for me, you’re going to serve me and take care of me. Oh, yes, and call me dad. Be like any other normal father-son relationship, you are my son, and when you get rich and make money, you have to be filial with me.”
The conditions he laid down, word for word, were like a big joke.
As a child, he drank to excess on numerous occasions, domestically…. He and his mother were violent and emptied the family’s savings to go out and buy alcohol and hang out.
One year, at the start of school, Leopoldo stole his mother’s hard-earned school fees for him. That year, Severo Laris stood at the entrance to the alley and watched his mother crying from house to house, borrowing money and being looked down upon, in order to keep him in school.
How could he not hate Severo Laris.
Between him and Leopoldo, to be like a normal father-son relationship in this world? He was just capricious.
Severo Laris did not kill him because there was still humanity, a code of his own and a vision of the law to be a lawyer.
If it was a matter of morals and right and wrong, Leopoldo would have been cut by him I don’t know how many times.
Leopoldo picked up a sandwich and put it in his mouth, asking in the old fashioned way, “Where is your mother? I want to see your mother, we are going back to being a normal family and your mother has to be there.”
Severo Laris said, word for word, “With me, you will never, ever see her again in your life.”
Leopoldo laughed at his shrill tone and patted the soda crumbs that had fallen out of his hand, “It’s okay, there’s nothing to be gained by talking to her anyway, my son is a lawyer, I would be the best one to talk to my son.”
Severo Laris frowns coldly: “Why don’t you go and die?”.
Leopoldo was not surprised to hear such words and did not care much, he even smiled and said, “How am I going to die, I have not had my fortune yet, my son is now a lawyer, I want my fortune, I want you to support me, you are so good, you must let me be good as an old man, right?”
Severus Laris closed his eyes tightly, his teeth on the verge of grinding.
The most inescapable thing in life is not poverty, not sickness, but birth.
To have a rogue and scoundrel kidnapper father.