“Sir, please have some tea”.
Esther only glanced at Tajo for a second before looking down and bringing him the tea, then put another cup in front of Allyce and a glass of juice in front of Alonzo before turning and leaving.
Alonzo looked at the two adults and took a small sip of the juice in front of him, one eye glancing at Allyce, then at Tajo and finally back to Saul.
Allyce was not surprised to see another strange look on Saul’s face.
This made Allyce a little curious.
Did his son look strange or something? It was surprising that an old butler like Saul, who had belonged to a noble family for decades and had excellent manners, had lost his colour for a few moments.
He looked at Saul for a few seconds, then looked away and pushed the question to the back of his mind.
Allyce was the first to break the silence: “Did Grandpa sleep well last night?
Her office was large, but Tajo was travelling with quite a few people, but she didn’t speak and neither did anyone else, so quiet was the space of nearly a dozen people that even a pin dropped to the floor after she spoke.
“People are old and don’t have many years left to live, so it doesn’t matter if they sleep well”. Tajo said this, obviously deliberately stabbing at Allyce.
Allyce took no offence and said quietly, “Grandpa looks very well and I’m sure he’ll live a long time, not to mention he has such a good doctor in Oliveria.”
Oliveria, a name that was at first a little strange to mention.
Only Tajo was not unfamiliar with it.
As soon as the words were out of his mouth, Tajo’s grip on his teacup tightened and he looked at Allyce with a grim look, then sneered, “Young people have a good memory.
“Of course I do, I remember Oliveria very well.” Allyce laughed lightly, as if she was actually talking to Tajo about someone unimportant.
However, only she knew that there was something difficult to say about how she felt about Oliveria.
If Oliveria had not hidden her health from Severo, she would not have been separated from him for two years and Alonzo would not have suffered in this way.
If Oliveria had not hidden her condition from Severo, he and she would have known of her pregnancy earlier.
If she had known earlier that she was pregnant, she would have protected herself and none of this would have happened.
Often, a person puts himself in danger through ignorance and negligence.
Oliveria did not appear to have done anything wrong, but she was the most important person involved in the incident.
Without her, it would not have been so easy for Izar to organise what was going to happen.
And there was a reason he had mentioned Oliveria to Tajo at the time.
Tajo had been proud all his life and had always wanted to control Severo.
But for more than a decade he had not achieved his intentions, and Allyce could have guessed something about how much he was holding back on that.
And although Oliveria only hid the anomalies of her tests from Severo, she also listened to Izar, who almost killed Tajo.
It is ironic that a man who has been proud all his life should end up being killed by someone close to him.
And it almost made Severo break up with him.
And then Izar disappeared from the castle of Solares.
I don’t think the heart of Tagus rejoices every time this is mentioned.
She is not a good person, she is narrow-minded in some things.
She and Tajo kept the peace on the surface, but only because of Severo.
“Hmph.” Tajo merely grunted coldly, not intending to speak again.
He looked around for a moment before speaking again: “This company of yours, how much profit do you make in a year?
Did that tone expect to mock her for not earning as much as Severo?
I didn’t know what to say to Tajo.
Allyce took a sip of her tea and seemed to think for a moment before speaking slowly, “My company is nothing compared to the LK Group, but the good thing is that Severo doesn’t need a rich wife to add to his glory.”
“Do you know anything about men?” Tajo suddenly said something that puzzled Allyce.
Allyce felt that the Tajo she saw again this time was a little different from the one she had seen before.
Do people really get more confused as they get older?
Actually, Tajo had come to ask her, a young girl, if she knew anything about men.
Allyce was silent.
He thought of Alonzo again and turned his head to look, only to find that Alonzo had started to doze off and his little head was nodding a little, looking a little funny and a little sorry.
Allyce reached out and picked him up, cradling him in her arms and gently rubbing his back.
Tajo treated Alonzo as if he were transparent through and through, oblivious to Allyce’s gestures, and spoke enigmatically again: “You think that’s all you see of Severo? He has the blood of the Betances family in him, and I know him better than anyone. One day he’ll know I’m doing everything right. You see, his mother is a good example, Ariela was exactly like Severo when she was young, but what happened to her? She died of her own stupidity.
It was the first time I had heard the name Ariela on Tajo’s lips.
But Tajo’s tone was not that of a father remembering his deceased daughter, but sounded as if he was lamenting the death of a small pet he had fed and released from its cage, with a certain disdain mixed in.
Allyce clenched her fist and then unclenched it again.
The calm look on his face disappeared and he grimaced, “Grandfather, everyone has their own path in life, I don’t know what’s so good about trying to control other people’s, but you seem to aspire to it and take pride in it, always trying to control other people’s lives when you have no idea how badly you’ve lived your own.”
“Allyce, what do you mean by that!” Tajo slammed his fist on the table, clearly angry.
Allyce felt Alonzo shift restlessly in her arms, and then she regretted a little of what she had just said.
The main reason was that they had angered Tajo and his anger would have disturbed Alonzo’s sleep.
Allyce pursed her lips and spoke calmly: “What have you thought about other than your desire to control people’s lives? If you really cared about your daughter, would she be willing to stay in Z and not return? If you really thought of Severo as your grandson, why would your relationship be in the state it is in now? The people around you who are nice to you are servants who have a working relationship with you, or just because of who you are. I think it’s an unfortunate thing for a person to live to this point”.