-No, no, I don’t want to go to the police station. I’m not going to the police station,” Alex tried to back away, looking at his father in fear as he desperately ran to the old woman.
-Grandma, help me, I don’t want to go to the police station with my father…..
Witnessing the chaotic scene in which her beloved grandson was being dragged across the floor like a dead dog by his father, Mrs. Espina rushed to separate the two.
Seeing Alex’s strong reaction, Ramon was now completely sure that his son was lying to him.
He looked him in the eyes and shouted in an angry voice:
-“You bastard, tell me right now in full what happened! What the hell did you do to owe so much money?! If you don’t explain everything clearly, I’ll finish you off with a knife!
-Even if you killed me, you’d have to pay this debt for me! -Alex couldn’t help but retort after hearing his own father’s harsh words.
His words infuriated Ramon even more and he raised his hand to slap him, but the old woman stopped him in time.
After pushing her son away, the old woman looked at Alex with a serious face and said:
-Tell me and your father the truth so that we know how to help you. If you don’t tell us the truth, there is nothing we can do to help you, yes or no?
Alex lowered his head and thought for a moment before speaking carefully:
-Okay, I’ll confess everything to you, granny. The truth is that I went to the casino to gamble again and lost all the money you had given me, so I asked for a loan from the loan sharks…..
After a short pause, he continued to defend himself:
-I’ve been very lucky these last few days, but the casino people have set me up. Otherwise…
Before he could finish his words, Mrs. Espina gave him a heavy slap in the face.
-Granny? -Alex covered his face and looked incredulously at the old woman.
The old woman looked angrily at her grandson and scolded him:
-Don’t call me by grandmother, I don’t have a grandson as much of a loser as you! If you had lost money in business, I wouldn’t have minded so much because it would have been a way to gain experience in entrepreneurship, but you wasted all the money I had saved for so many years in gambling! How can you be so useless!
Today, it was the first time that Alex, who had been spoiled since he was a child, received a slap from his grandmother, and he felt very aggrieved, but it was because of that that he realized that he himself had really gotten into a serious mess, unlike the small problems before. With his family’s current condition, the debt of five hundred thousand euros was no small amount.
The entire fortune they had stolen from Juan was almost depleted, and the Espina family only had very little money left available, so there was no way they could afford to pay off such a huge debt.
Alex looked at the angry old woman and then at his father, who had a grim look on his face, and whispered:
-Yes we are not able to pay back the money, however, don’t we still have Albina as a backup? Hasn’t she reconciled with our family? We are her only relatives in the world, and she is not going to stand idly by, is she?
Hearing this, the old woman was stunned for a moment and began to consider her grandson’s proposal.
Then she turned her head to look at her son and said:
-Ramon, why don’t we ask Albina to help us? This half million is a large sum of money for us, but for her and Umberto it is just some pocket money.
Yes Umberto had promised to give 10 million as a marriage gift to Albina. As long as she agreed to marry him, she would have 10 million, and then five hundred thousand euros would indeed be nothing to her.
Ramon frowned as he looked at the two of them, not uttering a sound for a long time.
He was hesitating inside.
“We had just eased the strained relationship with Albina. If I were to blatantly ask her to pay Alex’s gambling gambling debt right now, I’m afraid I would definitely give her a bad impression. Thus, the relationship that has softened could possibly become strained again, and it would be impossible for me to get more benefits from her in the future.”
Mrs. Espina and Alex looked expectantly at Ramon, waiting for him to make the final decision.
Alex even pleaded with a tearful face:
-Dad, we don’t have much time. I’ve only been given a deadline of one week, if we can’t pay the loan, I’m afraid you’ll lose me forever!
-So what?! -Ramon shouted angrily, grabbed the old woman’s cane by the door and gave Alex a hard whack, chasing him around the room.
-Didn’t I warn you not to touch the gambling game! Why didn’t you ever listen to me?! You already lost Juan’s entire fortune before, and now you’ve saddled me with a huge debt again! If you weren’t my own son, I wouldn’t give a shit if you died or not!
Finally, Ramon stopped and gasped heavily, leaning with the cane in his hand. Seeing that Alex was bruised all over from his hard beating, with an aggrieved look on his face, he didn’t go on to beat him.
After all, he only had one son. No matter how big a mistake this one had made, he couldn’t afford to leave him alone without help.
Ramon held back his anger and spoke after a while:
-Let me think of other ways first. If we really can’t raise the money in the end, then I’ll go find Albina.
For Ramon, Albina was his last most important card and he would not use it easily.
If there really was no other way out in the end, it would not be too late to turn to her for help.
After thinking everything through clearly, Ramon immediately left the house to look for his friends with the intention of borrowing money from them.
Thus, he stayed out for 4 days without returning home, visiting every friend of his to ask for help.
***
Albina had already been waiting for several days for the Thorns to come to her for help, but she did not expect them to be so calm.
She thought something had gone wrong with her plan. Only when she received a call from Kevin did she realize that the plan was going well.
Kevin had secretly had the Espina’s under surveillance, and he learned that they had been running around asking for money for the past few days.
However, things turned out to be much tougher than the Espina family thought. After Ramon was fired from his job, those supposed friends of his avoided him as if Ramon might bring them bad luck, not wanting to have any relationship with him, let alone lend him money.
Ramon spent four days asking his friends for help and only got them to lend him ten thousand euros or so, which was no use for the huge debt of half a million.
As time passed day by day, Alex became more and more anxious. The one-week deadline was about to end, was he really going to sit at home and wait for death?
-Dad, let’s go beg Albina to help me, okay? There’s no way we can raise half a million on our own.
Ramon gave his son a fierce look and said:
-What, are you nervous already now? Then how did you have the guts to ask for a loan of five hundred thousand?!
Alex pursed his lips, not daring to speak any further, and hurriedly looked to his grandmother for help.
The old woman was also very worried, for she knew that if Alex could not pay the money on time to the loan sharks, he would end up finished, so she hastened to advise her son:
-Son, now is not the time to argue. Let’s go get Albina right now. As long as this mess can be fixed, you can punish him as you wish.
Ramon, having no choice, gave a long heavy sigh and said:
-Let’s go. It’s almost dark, we’ll wait for her under her apartment.
-Wait for me for a moment. I’m going to change my clothes,” said the old woman.
Ramon looked at her helplessly and said:
-Mom, don’t. At this point, the more pathetic and miserable we look, the better.
Only then did the old woman realize that the more pitiful she looked while begging, the more sympathy she could gain from this one.
Thinking of this, she deliberately went back to her room and took out her old, tattered clothes and put them on. Then she pulled out and also took out two torn T-shirts that had been thrown away by her son and grandson, but had been secretly picked up by her afterwards.
The father and son looked at the two dirty and wrinkled T-shirts and put them on respectively while holding back nausea.
The three of them, dressed miserably, left for Albina’s house and when they arrived at the building where Albina’s apartment was located, it was already late in the afternoon and there were a lot of people walking around.
Old people and children coming and going looked at the three of them cautiously, as if they were beggars, and kept a long distance from them.
Although they were embarrassed, the three of them stood there waiting in silence. After a few minutes, they saw a familiar figure slowly approaching them.
Ramon’s eyes lit up and he said in a low voice:
-Albina is back!