Albina held the album and looked intently at the baby in the photo.
He was so small and cute, he had a round face, but you could see his beauty when he was mature.
-Wow, what a cute baby!
Albina was very excited, she held her face and looked carefully at the photo.
She hadn’t expected Umberto to be so cute as a child.
Seeing her like that, Mrs. Santangel laughed and also turned her gaze to the photo.
There was a chubby baby with very delicate and cute facial features, his round eyes were looking straight ahead and he was holding a small toy train in his hand.
He looked a little giddy, but he still looked very cute. Plus, he was wearing some funny looking baby clothes. Albina glanced at Umberto and let out an unintentional laugh.
Even though Umberto was playing chess with his grandfather, he kept glancing at Albina out of the corner of his eye, and seeing her suddenly laughing at him, he felt curious as to what had happened.
Seeing that grandfather was still frowning to think of the next step, he asked his father to sit in his seat.
-Dad, sit here and play with Grandpa, please.
Sergio Santangel had long since stopped wanting to play with Umberto, because he didn’t know how to respect his elders. He had won all the games without conceding a single one to his grandfather, and that left him feeling very frustrated.
Now that he finally saw him withdraw, he quickly picked up all the chess pieces and looked at his son with great interest.
-Since Umberto left, let’s play a new game.
Umberto’s father had no choice but to accept his invitation and let him win all the games to please him.
After Umberto got up, he walked straight to Albina, sat down next to her leaning against her, and asked her in a low voice:
-What are you laughing so hard about?
Albina quickly showed him the picture.
-Umberto, do you remember this picture? It was taken of you when you were still a cute baby, but you look so different now.
“You mean I’m ugly now?”
Umberto narrowed his eyes and pointed to his face.
-What’s wrong with my current face, isn’t it pretty, don’t you like it?
Albina was stunned by his question, looked at his delicate and beautiful facial features and said reddening, -No, I meant that you looked more tender than you do now.
“You looked so tiny and fleshy, you had a charm that pleased people, but now with just a look, you intimidate everyone who approaches you.”
Mrs. Santangel seeing that Albina liked the photo very much, reminded her with a smile.
-We have kept many photos of Umberto in this album.
Unlike the older ones, Umberto’s father had taken many photos of his son after the birth.
-Look, here is a picture from when he was one month old, this one was taken when he was 100 days old and this one when he was one year old.
Having said that, Mrs. Santangel put the album in front of Albina so that they could look at it together.
-Look at them, I have to go to the bathroom.
Albina eagerly flipped through the pages, just as Mrs. Santangel said, she saw many pictures of Umberto that were taken for different scenes with multiple postures.
At the beginning, when he was one and two years old, he had been portrayed in very funny positions, which made Albina excited to see each of these pictures.
But Umberto felt so embarrassed that even his ears reddened.
He didn’t know there were so many crazy pictures of him.
Soon after, Albina discovered that there were almost no pictures after the age of two, every now and then, pictures of Umberto with a sullen face and dressed in a small suit would appear.
-When my grandmother passed away, my parents sent me to live with my grandfather, because I was very sad and lonely,” Umberto explained.
And from that moment on, Umberto’s parents stopped paying attention to their son. His grandfather brought him up very strictly from an early age, which made him more and more indifferent and more and more distant from his relatives.
Hearing this, Albina looked at the serious-faced boy and all humor was taken away to laugh, until she began to feel sorry for him.
The following photos appeared once a year or several years and Umberto looked more and more imposing and with a distant expression.
Albina felt as if she was watching Umberto’s growth.
Within all the photos, there was one that she liked very much.
In that photo, Umberto looked to be about sixteen or seventeen years old, he was wearing a white shirt, black pants, he had fluffy and refreshing hair, cool eyes, white skin and extremely beautiful facial features, he was so striking that no one could forget him just by looking at him.
-How handsome! -Albina whispered looking at the picture with sparkling eyes.
Seeing that she liked it, Umberto took the photo out of the album and put it in her hand.
-It’s yours.
Albina froze for a moment and said embarrassed:
-Thank you, but it must be a very valuable photo for the family, I can’t accept it.
Umberto laughed.
-Don’t worry, surely my mom has more of these photos, besides, you’re my future wife, so you’re the best person to keep it.
If it wasn’t for Mrs. Santangel’s strong objection, Umberto would have definitely thrown away all those embarrassing photos, what bothered him the most was that these photos were presented to Albina. Umberto looked very unnatural and believed that his image was completely ruined in front of her.
Albina did not notice his thoughts, she held the photo and looked at it fondly.
Umberto seeing her like that, smiled.
The sun rays were coming through the window, the white curtains were fluttering in the wind, and a beautiful couple was looking at each other sweetly. It was a very cozy picture.
Mrs. Santangel captured this scene and raised the camera to stop and save another unforgettable moment, then smiled looking at the couple in the photo.
Then a new photo would be put in the family album and she would probably soon welcome a new baby into the family.
After finishing flipping through the album, Albina carefully put Umberto’s photo in her wallet and before putting it away, she looked at it again and touched it for a good while.
Then, she turned her head and looked at Umberto.
-Tomorrow, I’m going to enlarge and print this photo and then frame it and put it in our room.
Umberto’s ears turned red at her enthusiastic words.
-Please don’t do that, I’ll feel weird facing my picture when it enters our room.
-But I’d love to see it every day.
Umberto hugged Albina’s shoulder and whispered:
-A picture of our wedding should be placed in our room, and as for this picture, you’d better keep it in your wallet so that no one else but you will see it, the picture belongs only to you.
Albina strongly agreed with what he said and nodded repeatedly.
-Yes, it only belongs to me.
As she looked at the photo, she suddenly turned her head and pulled Umberto’s wallet out of her pocket.
-Let me see if you keep any pictures in your wallet!
“Senor Seco’s wallet has a photo of his deceased eldest son, maybe Umberto kept a special photo for him too.”
Umberto was surprised by Albina’s sudden act and when he saw that she was about to open his wallet, he quickly stopped her very shyly.
-Albina, there is nothing in it.
Albina stopped and looked at him suspiciously.
-If there’s nothing, then why are you so nervous?
Umberto’s ears turned very red.
-Don’t misunderstand me!
Her anxiety aroused Albina’s curiosity even more, she looked at Umberto and suddenly said:
-Is it perhaps a picture of your ex-girlfriend, or of your first love?
The more she talked, the more she became suspicious of Umberto, she had remembered that Ariana told her about Santiago’s first love, then she started to get angry for imagining that Umberto also loved another woman and she even put her picture in her wallet.
-What nonsense are you saying? -Umberto tapped her forehead, “How can you be so ungrateful to me when I treat you so well?
-Then let me see! -insisted Albina staring straight into Umberto’s eyes.
Before Umberto could speak, suddenly someone snatched his wallet.
-Umberto, we also want to know what is hidden in your wallet and what caused you so much concern.
Mrs. Santangel held up the wallet and stood in front of them with a smile on her face.