When Angelina happened to brush against Michael, she caught a familiar scent and looked up at him to see his tall, straight back.
He was gently embracing a woman. From Angelina’s angle, she could only see the hem of the fluttering pink skirt and the white calves quivering with Miguel’s step.
The scene was so romantic it looked just like a comic book.
-I didn’t expect Mr. Aguila to be so considerate,” Angelina murmured.
Earlier, at the banquet, she had also seen the girl in the pink dress standing next to Miguel. She just didn’t see how close the two were at the time.
-Could it be that they are shy in front of the public? -Angelina muttered and then forgot about it.
By then, the guests had already left one after another and the Santangels were smiling at the entrance.
They froze for a moment when they saw Miguel approaching with his companion in his arms, but quickly returned to normal.
-Miguel, why don’t you wait for your brother to come back with you? -Olivia asked with a smile, looking down at the person in her arms.
The girl’s hair was disheveled, covering most of her features and revealing only her delicate chin. She was curled up in Miguel’s arms in a very intimate way.
Miguel smiled kindly at Olivia, looked at the girl and said:
-She got drunk at the party and I have to get her home quickly. My brother will drive back later.
After nodding toward the Santangels, Miguel left.
The Santangels looked behind him and whispered.
-Miguel seems to really like the girl in his arms.
-Yes, he seems to have given up on Albina. That’s good, it will solve a big problem.
At that moment, the Pomars approached with Angelina to say goodbye, and after exchanging greetings, Angelina repeated what she had just said.
After explaining what “Albina” had said, she followed her parents and left.
The Santangels saw that almost all the guests had left and ran upstairs.
-Our daughter didn’t seem sick this morning,” Olivia said worriedly.
-We should call the doctor in case she’s not feeling well, or she’ll get worse and worse as she crawls around,” Daniel said.
Olivia nodded and sent someone to call the family doctor.
Umberto finally got Santiago settled and when he came out with Camilo, he looked very tired in his slightly disheveled suit.
Santiago was really hard to control when he was drunk. They both cooperated with Santiago and listened to his nonsense. Only when he fell asleep, the two were able to escape.
As soon as he left, he heard Daniel say that he wanted to call the family doctor. Umberto’s expression tightened and he hurried over.
-Mom, Dad, what’s wrong? Why do you want to call the doctor? Is Grandpa…?
-No, no,” Daniel hastened to interrupt him. A moment ago Miss Pomar said that Albina wasn’t feeling well and that she had gone upstairs to rest. We want the doctor to check her over.
Olivia looked at Umberto with complaint.
-Why don’t you care about your future wife? She didn’t sleep well last night; she probably caught a cold!
Umberto frowned, a little puzzled.
Last night Albina slept so soundly that she didn’t wake up when he hugged her and slept until dawn.
“How could she not have slept well?”
-I’m going to see her,” Umberto said and headed upstairs.
Camilo, meanwhile, looked around, looking for his brother in the living room.
Seeing this, Olivia said to him:
-By the way, Camilo, Miguel just left. His partner was drunk and he had to escort her back first and asked us to let you know.
After saying that, Olivia scoffed:
-Your brother seems to really like that roommate of his. You’re two years older than him, when are you going to get a girlfriend?
Camilo, Umberto and Santiago grew up together. Umberto was engaged and Santiago had traded many girlfriends, but Camilo was the only one who had yet to get a girlfriend.
So Olivia was teasing him.
As a result, not only did Camilo freeze for a moment, but even Umberto, who was walking up the stairs, stopped in his tracks.
“Miguel really liked Sandra?”
“How was that possible?”
“Could it be that just now at the banquet, Miguel was faking it? Did he really treat Sandra like a stand-in?”
“I mustn’t let that woman near Miguel.” Camilo thought.
A man and a woman alone, and one of them drunk, who knew what was going to happen.
He hurriedly said goodbye to the Santangels and ran off.
Umberto’s heart was a little confused, he felt something was wrong and hurried up the stairs.
When he reached his bedroom door, he pushed open the door and the inside was pitch black.
The curtains were tightly closed and Umberto did not turn on the light, fearing that the sudden light would disturb Albina in her sleep.
He cautiously made his way to the bed and, through the dim light in the hallway, he could see a figure in a white dress on the bed.
The room was so quiet that only the sound of her breathing could be heard.
Umberto was about to probe Albina’s forehead to see if she had a fever when, suddenly, the person on the bed moved and hugged him.
This sudden movement made Umberto freeze for a moment. His first reaction was to catch the woman, fearing that she would fall to the floor.
But when she was about to move into his arms, Umberto pulled away violently.
The woman did not expect him to dodge her at the critical moment, so she fell straight to the ground.
The woman’s scream and snort echoed in the silent room.
Umberto recognized the voice.
-You’re not Albina! – he shouted with red eyes.
Before the woman could get up, he lunged at her and squeezed her neck.
Sandra was instantly breathless, like a dying fish.
At that moment, the Santangels were coming with the family doctor. When they reached the door, they suddenly heard strange noises coming from inside, which were Umberto’s angry roar and the sound of a woman struggling and moaning.
Olivia was taken aback.
“How could Umberto be angry with Albina? He usually adores her so much that he doesn’t even speak aloud to her.”
“Has his attitude changed because he’s engaged?”
Olivia didn’t have time to think about it and hurried into the room, as Daniel followed her and turned on the lights.
Seeing the scene inside, they were both shocked.
From their angle, what they saw was Umberto’s back. Albina’s legs were still on the bed, but the upper half of her body had fallen to the floor.
Umberto was half-kneeling, with one hand clenched into a fist and another tightly strangling Albina’s neck. It felt horrible just to look at his back.
-Umberto! What are you doing, how dare you do this to Albina!
Olivia was the first to pounce on him, slapping his shoulders angrily.
-You were the one who begged to marry Albina in the first place. Now that you’re engaged, you dare to hit her, let her go!
Olivia was almost beside herself when Daniel pushed her away.
-She’s not Albina!
With a single sentence, Olivia was silenced.
She hurried to look at the person whose neck was being strangled by Umberto. Her face was ghastly, it was purple and white-eyed from her breathless exhalation. She looked extremely horrible.
Although she looked like Albina, it wasn’t her!
-Sandra, it’s you!
Once the lights were turned on, Umberto got a good look at the woman’s face and only released her when he saw that she was about to faint.
Sandra breathed the fresh air with all her might, her body drenched in cold sweat and her face turning from purple to white.
She had almost been strangled to death by Umberto!