Ernesto sniffed and jumped on her neck, his eyes full of vileness.
-Natalia, I stand by the principle of not hitting women, but that doesn’t include women like you, are you trying to challenge our boundaries again?
Tomas also clenched his fists.
-Natalia, all our indulgence is for my brother, and if you have the slightest intention of hurting him, I’ll teach you what it means to be a ‘fish out of water’.
Ernesto shoved her away and Natalia coughed twice, full of resentment, before finally looking at Carlos in the hospital bed, grunting and opening the door to leave.
They sent Carlos back to Barrio Fanslan.
Diego gave Sofia another flurry of explanations, the same version Ernesto and the others knew.
Sofia was stunned to hear, although she could not believe it and did not want to believe it, she had to believe that Miss Micaela had really passed away, and she was devastated and could in no way accept the idea of seeing Mr. Carlos marrying that Natalia in the future….
-Sofia, you have taken care of my brother’s upbringing and it is important that you adjust your mind.
Sofia wanted to say something, but finally nodded.
Ernesto looked at Diego with some suspicion, remembering the smell of smoke he had just given Carlos and the cigarettes and lighter he had found in his pockets when he was changing his clothes.
-Carlos has started smoking?
Carlos has always disliked strong smells because of his nasal sensitivity…..
Diego snorted some heartbreaking words.
-Mr. Carlos lit a cigarette whenever he could and watched it burn.
He watched the residual smoke curling up, his brow slightly furrowed, not knowing what he was thinking, the expression on his face somewhat confused, somewhat dejected, as if he himself doubted his own actions, but could not control himself from doing so….
Just because, is that smoke?
Carlos and Ernesto felt their hearts pounding hard, even though they did not remember Micaela, but that single word – smoke – held so much in their hearts and minds….
They all shook off their mixed feelings, said their goodbyes and went back to their cars.
Tomas closes the car door and the phone rings, it is Bianca who is distressed about her situation, Tomas immediately tells her about Carlos and Bianca is furious.
-Tomas, isn’t there anything we can do with her?
Tomas was silent for a long time, remembering the smell of Carlos’ cigarette smoke, and a wrenching pain, before saying.
-We’ll have to do what we planned before and wait until three or five years have passed and Carlos’s feelings for Micaela have faded and he can step out of the shadow of her departure before using tactics to force Natalia to dehypnotize him.
Tomas rests his head on the seat cushion and sighs, mentally saying that he hopes time will erase it all.
-Who wouldn’t want to kill Natalia? But her hypnosis is something only she can undo, she makes Carlos forget about Micaela, we’ve all seen this situation today, anyone who mentions Micaela in front of him is doing him a disservice…. We can only hold our breath, so that someday, we can finally get out of this bad situation!
Moreover, Tomas remembered Enrique’s words before leaving the hospital.
-What Natalia injected Carlos with, maybe it’s a poison that melts in the blood, the poison they gave Micaela that time, we can detect it in a blood sample, but Carlos’ is not, Carlos and I worked together with Sergio before, he had symptoms similar to those, but his symptoms spoke, they spoke of somewhere, or someone, who also coughs blood and can’t physically know what’s wrong, between them, maybe there is some kind of connection, and, there should also be an antidote.
Yes, there was a connection, not only between him and Micaela, Sergio, but also Natalia, Mother, Salamonsa, all inexplicable and suspicious, Natalia was so cunning that she was frantic to catch Carlos while she did not give half importance to him spitting blood, and it was not possible that she had hidden more, the medicine, was there another threat?
She was injecting Carlos with drugs, Diego knew it, so Victor must have known it too!
How could Grandpa accept Natalia replacing her so easily when it was obvious that he liked Micaela so much?
If he cared so much about Carlos, how could he risk Natalia injecting herself with such a drug?
Did grandfather not only know that Micaela was from Salamonsa, but that there was more to scare him than that?
Tomas’s alarms went off and he started the car.
-Bianca, stay home and get some rest, I’m going back to Salamentro now, to see grandfather about something!
…
True to his habit, the next day Carlos woke up in the master bedroom of Barrio Fanslan without the slightest suspicion of what had happened the night before.
The sheets were new, they smelled of sunshine and laundry detergent, but Carlos felt that there was still a different fragrance….
I got up, washed up, went down to the gym and saw Sofia busy in the kitchen.
After the gym, she went back to the master bedroom to take a shower, the cold water injected into her firm white chest, and with her eyes closed she started thinking about what she would probably have to face today, and yes, getting Diego to make a date to get married.
I never thought anything like marriage would happen to me, so I can’t help but feel a little irritated at the thought.
Did I really love Natalia before?
Some time ago, he was given the wedding dress. If he didn’t love her, how could he customize that precious wedding dress for her?
Wiping the water from her face, she opened her eyes, took the towel from the shelf and turned for a moment to see, in the mirror, a healed wound at the position of the nail on her left shoulder?
It looks like it has been stitched…
Carlos looked at that unfocused wound, why did it hurt, this is also in that forgotten memory?
He didn’t look at it because he knew he couldn’t think of anything, he dried his hair, wrapped the towel around himself and walked out, stopping in front of his closet, sliding his hand through a set of shirts before pulling one of them out.
This brand wasn’t her usual tailored brand….
But it was the one he wanted to wear, and when he ripped it out, he found quite a few clothes he wanted to wear, more than Nyisrenda, and even though none of them were his old bespoke models, somehow he felt a little more relaxed.
He changed and went downstairs, Sofia had already brought out breakfast and tried to say in her calmest voice.
-Mr. Carlos, good morning.
Carlos nods, sits down and picks up the economic newspaper on a tray.
Really, Mr. Carlos didn’t ask anything about last night?
Sofia doesn’t know whether to breathe a sigh of relief or to be saddened…
His family Mr. Carlos is sick, but he doesn’t know he is…
Sofia turns sadly to open the movable floor-to-ceiling window when Carlos suddenly stops her.
-Don’t open the windows to ventilate.
What?
Sofia turns around with some confusion.
Carlos also paused a little, why not allow ventilation?
Half the time, he insists.
-Just remember.
Sofia took a long, long time to realize that Mr. Carlos feared that the smell of Miss Micaela in the house dissipated, but he himself did not know it?
Sofia dare not cry with a mop in her hand…