(Renata Valentini)
“- Live, in an abandoned shed, the bodies of two FBI agents were found, a man and a woman, we have no information on who the man is, he is disfigured, the woman has been identified as Camily Fox, head of the alpha team… One second… We just confirmed, three bodies were found, the third is of a woman identified as Veronica Lins, a civilian, she worked at the Computing Diamond company, she was butchered, her body parts were burned and…”
My eyes flutter and I feel my spine freeze, a fearful chill runs through my entire body, I feel as if the air is thinning inside my lungs and I end up swallowing without chewing the cookie, which Amanda gave me after I calmed down from my crying fit on her lap, scratching my throat. The reporter’s voice is muted in my ears, I can only hear the sound of my heart beating hard in my chest. Camily. The woman who was looking for Filippo is an FBI agent, Veronica is also dead… On the same day that Filippo left…
“Renata?” I come out of my reverie as I feel my shoulders being shaken by Amanda, I turn my gaze to the television, but it is off.
“H-hi?” I answer in bewilderment.
Amanda sits next to me on the couch, even with her eyes still purple and puffy, I can see the concern.
“Now that you are calmer, what happened? Why did you come here like that?”
“Filippo… is gone.” I speak feeling my heart bleeding again.
“What do you mean?”
I tell her the whole story. I started with our move to another house, then how I met his brothers, after the assassination attempt on his older brother, the crisis he had at the salon, how I kept petting him until I fell asleep and when I woke up he was no longer there… I told what happened at the company. Amanda listens to me with her head down, probably digesting all this.
“I… I want to castrate that motherfucker!” Amanda speaks angrily. “Who does he think he is to just eat and leave? It’s only been four days since he took your virginity!”
“Who is she?” A male voice speaks behind me.
Mercy, the old man has arrived right at the part where Amanda screams that Filippo took my virginity, I feel my whole face heat up.
“A friend.” Amanda answers without looking at her father.
“I don’t want a whore here,” he speaks without looking at me and begins to approach us.
“She’s not a whore, and I don’t want thugs here, but still an addict…. ” her father shuts her up with a slap slap in the face.
“You respect me! You slut! Just stay here and eat my money!” He shouts and Amanda holds his face.
“I am the one who puts money in this house!” She shouts. “You use my money to get high, you drug addict.”
Her father tries to slap her again, but I pull her to deflect and he just hits the air.
“Do you want a spanking too, you bitch?” He speaks to me, I feel hatred coursing through my veins.
“Get up there, you dirty old man!” I call him to fight, fuck him if he’s not my age.
“You bitch!” He comes up, but Amanda stands in the middle and gets the slap in my place.
“Your food is in the oven, go to dinner.” Amanda says, and after a few seconds of staring at her, he turns around and goes into the kitchen.
“I think you’d better go home…” Amanda says without being able to look me in the eye.
“Come with me.” I ask, holding her hands.
“I don’t…”
“Please, I don’t want to be alone there. I beg you.”
“All right…”
I pick up my cell phone and dial for the Uber that first brought me here.
***
“Renata?” I hear Amanda calling me, I’m in the bathroom of the bedroom taking a shower.
“Yes?” I turn off the shower.
“About the money you paid that drug dealer and the hospital bill, I will pay you everything, I just ask you to let me pay in installments… I know it was more than fifteen thousand dollars in total…”
“You don’t have to,” I interrupted her.
“Yes, you do! You don’t have to lose your money because of my father.”
“Do you have to take on any more of his debts?” I ask, and wrap myself in my towel.
“Yes, but…”
“After I pay off this debt, then you start paying me back.” Amanda is sitting on the floor next to the door, I offer my hand and she accepts.
“Are you sure about that? You won’t need it…”
“No, you can rest assured.”
Amanda sits on the bed and I go to the closet, get dressed and go back to the bedroom. Lying on the bed.
“Your house is very nice,” Amanda says, lying down as well.
“It’s not mine, it’s Filippo’s. I was going to help pay for the furniture, but he left…”
“Sorry to be nosy, but the deed to the house was on the bed, and it’s in your name.”
“What deed? When I went out and left the bed tidy and there was no paper.”
Amanda picks up a piece of paper from the foot of the bed and only now I notice it, she hands it to me, I read it carefully and see my signature, when did I sign this?
“What are you going to do?” She asks.
“I don’t know…”
Again the tears fall through my eyes, Filippo has gone away, but he has left the house furnished in my name. Why? What hatred!
> A month and a fortnight later:
“What is it?”
As soon as I ask, I start vomiting again, I’m so sick, today I couldn’t eat anything, I can’t stand vomiting anymore, now only water comes out.
“It’s a pregnancy test,” Amanda replies.
“And what did you bring me this for?” I ask, close the lid of the toilet and sit down on it.
“For two weeks now you have been complaining of dizziness, cravings, and since yesterday you have been vomiting non-stop, you are getting more irritable than usual so…”
“There is no way I can be pregnant!”
“Sorry for touching his name, but… Did Filippo cum inside?”
“Yes, but I took the morning-after pill and the next day he used a condom, so there’s no way!”
‘You know that there is no one hundred percent efficient method, right?”
“I can’t…”
Shit!
“Go take the test, then we’ll see how it goes.”
Amanda comes out of the bathroom leaving me alone with the pregnancy test. Lord, help me, I can’t be pregnant by a man who abandoned me and never showed up again, not even on television.