On the third day of the year, Adam Rouco embarked on a flight to Imperial.
Severo Laris was slightly taken aback when he received the strange chain of calls.
The other man was a handsome man of detached courtesy, with a forehead that bore a slight resemblance to Paula Rouco.
This man is surrounded by the air of a man who has been in a position of power for a long time, with an elegant and quiet demeanor.
In contrast, Severo Laris is a bit younger, given his age and experience.
The two men are sitting by the window.
Adam Rouco has never minced words and gets straight to the point: “I’m Paula Rouco’s father, Adam Rouco. hello.”
“Hello.”
Adam Rouco told him, “I know you have a relationship with my daughter and I shouldn’t have meddled in the affairs between your offspring, but you are Leopoldo’s son, and it was my daughter that Leopoldo kidnapped, eight years ago, as a child.”
Severo Laris’ dark eyes trembled fiercely, a mixture of shock, disbelief … and mixed emotions that left him with a lump in his throat, unable to say a word.
Ridiculous.
Adam Rouco gave him a clear look and said, “From the looks of you, I don’t think you knew any of this before either.”
The lump in Severo Laris’ throat slipped bitterly for a long moment before he spoke, “Mr. Adam turned to me to break up with his daughter…”
Adan Rouco is a tough guy in business, but he can’t be overbearing in this case, after all, Severo Laris has done nothing wrong.
“Yes.”
Severo Laris lowered his eyes, frowned slightly, and asked, “Does she know that the man who kidnapped her then was my father?”
“I don’t know, I wasn’t going to tell her, that’s why I came to you, hoping you would take the initiative and break up with her. You should know her well enough to know that if I offer to break up with her, she won’t listen to me and say she knows, but she’ll keep dating you behind your back.”
The corner of Severo Laris’ lips curved slightly at the thought of her occasionally naughty and superficial way of treating her parents. “Yes, I would.”
It was the first time Adam Rouco had met and spoken to Severo Laris, but it was clear from the way he mentioned Paulita that his feelings for her were not just a young man’s game.
But this knowledge made Adam Rouco feel even more guilty about him.
Adam Rouco pursed his thin lips and said in a low voice, “I’m sorry, you have done nothing wrong, but I cannot feel comfortable leaving my daughter with the son of a dangerous man.”
Severo Laris was not hostile, just surprisingly calm, he took a deep breath and said, “I know, I can understand. If I had known that the girl my father kidnapped eight years ago was her, I wouldn’t have agreed to go out with her in the first place.”
He had gone down in the dust, but she, who was already a million years old, shouldn’t have fallen into the abyss with him.
It was okay for Leopold to pursue him, not her.
“So, please, cut your relationship with her cleanly, is what I ask of you as a father.”
Severo Laris’ hand under the table, pale as ice, “Give me a moment.”
Adam Rouco nodded and agreed, “I don’t like to be indebted to people, I know you have a lot of problems with your father lately, I can help you with that.”
Severo Laris is proud, and when he looks up, his gaze is calm and cold, “I can handle my own affairs, Senor Adan, I have agreed to break up with Paulita, please let me have the last bit of pride.”
Adam Rouco froze slightly, with a glint of gratitude in his eyes.
It was surprising that Severo Laris did not negotiate any other compensation or demands in exchange for breaking up with him. Before he arrived, Adam Rouco thought that a man of Severo Laris’ humble origins, however proud, might not be able to resist some temptations.
It is difficult to produce a noble son from a humble family.
But after meeting Severo Laris, Adam Rouco admitted that he had been prejudiced against him before.
When Severo Laris got up to leave, he swallowed saliva and finally spoke, “I’m sorry although it was my father, not me, who kidnapped Paulita eight years ago. ”
Even the heartbreaking shame and self-loathing.
He no longer had enough courage to stand so openly in front of Paula Rouco.
Severo Laris is right, but being Leopoldo’s son is to blame.
Severo Laris walked out of the clubhouse with the cold winter wind whipping at his neck.
In his hand he clutches a beige wool scarf hand-knitted by Paula Rouco, and after a long while he carefully pulls it around his neck.
It seems like it would be much warmer that way.
…
Severo Laris found Leopoldo, pinned him to the ground and punched him hard.
“How come you weren’t sentenced to death for the kidnapping in the first place, why didn’t you go to die?”
Severo Laris, who has lost his composure and restraint, is violent and merciless, punching Leopoldo hard in the face, punch after punch.
Leopoldo’s head was buzzing from the blow and he felt like he was going to pass out.
Leopoldo struggled to escape and was dragged backwards by Severo Laris and hit hard.
Leopoldo clenched his teeth and cried for help: “Severo Laris! You’re a lawyer! If you hit me again, I’m going to sue you! Unless you want to be disbarred.”
Severo Laris grimaced, “You think I’m afraid they’ll take away my law license now?”
Severo Laris, so fearless to the point of frenzy, is feared to the core.
Leopoldo looked at him in horror: “What do you want?”.
“Because of you, I’ve lost the most important thing to me now, and what kind of a just world is this if I can’t even beat you for what you’ve done to me? It’s true that the law can’t dissolve our father-son relationship, and that’s why you want to suck my blood, isn’t it? Leopoldo, I tell you that now I’m the one who’s barefoot, and I’m not afraid of you!”.
Leopoldo sat down on the ground, recoiling in fright, and said in a trembling voice: “No, you can’t beat me to death! You’re a lawyer, you’re a so-called good man, if you beat me to death, you’re no different from a kidnapper like me!”.
Severo Laris laughed viciously, grabbed him by the collar and said through gritted teeth, “You can sue me, but now I’m not afraid of anything, Leopoldo, from now on, I’ll beat you every time you bother me. You can’t dissolve, and as long as I don’t beat you until I cripple you, there’s nothing you can do to me, and as soon as I get out of jail, I’ll grab you and beat you. I’ll beat you till you’re afraid.”
“You, you, you! You are shameless!”
Severo Laris smiled and showed his white teeth like a shura from hell, “Have you done more shamelessness like this? You could try to see which of us is more shameless. You should know that I know more than you do about taking advantage of loopholes in the law. I have a hundred ways to kill you without paying for your life, so you’d better stay away from me.”
Leopoldo’s upper and lower teeth struggled, his eyes widening as he looked at him.
Severo Laris undid his shirt collar with a dismissive swipe and stood up, relieved as he was.
There are many ways to deal with a shameless and mean man, and the most effective is to be even more shameless and mean than he is.
Especially when it comes to bullying unscrupulous players like Leopoldo.
Severo Laris looked at Leopoldo as if he were a street rat, disgusted and cold, and tossed him a bank card.
“The code is six 1’s and there are fifty thousand on it. This is the last filial duty I will do for you. From now on, you can try it and see what happens to you when you annoy me.”