Micaela walks towards the main road without stopping, with a thin layer of sweat on her forehead, breathing heavily….
She had passed five forks in the road and was pretty sure she hadn’t gone the wrong way, but she was also pretty sure that the road was still far, far away….
The sixth fork in the road appears….
This side is all yellow mud road, little rain in autumn, the earth is hard, unable to leave footprints, the sides of the road grow high straw, before this is an orchard, orchards late deserted, no one to care, just more and more desolate, in order to transport the fruit, the road is quite large, the route is also extraordinarily intricate….
Micaela stopped at the side of the road and looked at the three roads that appeared in front of her and led in different directions, all three looked the same and she did not know which road to take….
She thought things were too easy, it was too difficult for her to run out without outside help, the sun was already tilted to the west, the days were already getting shorter in late autumn and the temperature difference between the mountains and the nights was even greater, it was very cold at night….
At that moment I was tired, thirsty and hungry….
-Moya, Moya, where are you?
Nilson’s voice is heard faintly…
Micaela is startled and tries to calm her breathing, knowing that her escape has failed…
She couldn’t compromise, she had to leave something, in case Carlos found this, it would be good to give him a clue…
She was in a hurry and she only had one dress on her….
Quickly he was about to take off his jacket, but on second thought, he feared that Nilson also thought that if his clothes were missing, he might have left them somewhere as a sign and it would be bad if he came back to pick them up….
Reaching into his jacket pocket, I felt the ring….
The ring that Carlos put on his…
This ring is missing and Nilson won’t notice….
She looked down and anxiously searched for the thread on her dress. Fortunately, she found a thread in her sleeve, pulled it, about ten centimeters long, and tied one end to the ring. She stood on tiptoe and wrapped the thread around the branch, leaving the ring dangling.
The move might be naive, it might be pie in the sky, but there’s only one chance, and she’s going to try….
After a glance at the ring and then at the three rails, Micaela turned around and went back….
Nilson ran up here and felt like he was going crazy, that’s how Carlos feels these days, isn’t it?
No, it was ten thousand times harder on himself than knowing that Moya was on this hill while Carlos was looking for a needle in a haystack!
The pain in his chest was so bad he didn’t have time to worry, Moya should have been as close as soon if he hadn’t taken a wrong turn….
Beads of sweat slid down his face and he wiped them nonchalantly, his face full of anxiety, his whole body reeking of unhappiness, looking around him, worried that she had hidden so he wouldn’t find her, and shouting
-Moya, come out of there!
Turning for a moment, I saw across the street and the familiar figure appeared around the corner….
Nilson’s heart was beating fast, a little incredulous that Moya had returned on her own two feet….
Micaela slowly approaches, takes a look at the dejected Nilson, calmly crosses over him and continues on….
Nilson lets out a sigh of relief and turns to catch up with her.
-What, knowing you can’t escape and finding it safer to be near me?
Micaela stopped her steps and turned to look at him.
Nilson stopped dead in his tracks as well, trying to calm his rapid breathing.
-Nilson, if I had not returned, if you had not found me, and I had frozen to death in the night in these hills, or, if I had been found by passing villains and taken away, dead in one piece, would you have regretted bringing me here.
The dreaded “what if…” took Nilson’s breath away, and he immediately refused point blank.
-There would be no such thing!
Micaela’s clear eyes look at Nilson.
-Nilson, I’m talking about yes! -Yes, indeed, this horrible thing happened, it was you who got me killed, your paranoid love, your selfish possessiveness that pushed the person you thought you loved the most to death…..
-You want to tell me that love is not possession, you want to tell me that you are unhappy with me and that you want to run back to Carlos every minute, don’t you?
Nilson interrupted her words and grabbed her chin, with a slight hint of coldness in his eyes.
-Moya, do you know how painful it is to love and not have it? I didn’t want to force you, otherwise I would have had countless opportunities along the way to bring you back, I didn’t want to hurt you, so I let you take his son and I never wanted to take him away from you, do you think I didn’t have a chance? Do you think you would have had a chance to resist if I had used force on you? Don’t you know how cruel my methods are.
Micaela frowned and pushed his hand away without hesitation, and wiped her chin with her sleeve in disgust.
-Are there people alive in the world who love without being able to love, every one as intolerant as you? Don’t you want to force me? Then what have you done by holding me hostage to Anlandana? Why have you confined me here now? Don’t you want to hurt me? You gave me poison when I was so young, and this is how you don’t want to hurt me?
Nilson is a bit surprised and really dumbfounded at this point….
He looked at Micaela and his heart beat faster for a moment, the stern aura of her who never bowed at dusk struck him, her imposing gaze made her whole person shine….
He didn’t want to force her, he didn’t want to hurt her was one reason, more to the point, or as she said, he believed she would show him, what it meant to be a jade fire, and he didn’t want to see that…..
Micaela’s chest was congested and she hadn’t finished what she wanted to say.
-Don’t think that by having me here and spending ten days together you can sow feelings and trust between Carlos and me, it’s impossible, and don’t think that for these ten days Carlos’ plan to revitalize Echave City will fail, he’s a thousand times better than you, ten thousand times better, and he’ll never fall in love with you!.
By the time he got to the end, he was practically shouting, and it seemed he had never spoken out loud in his life….
Looking at Micaela, who looked like an angry lion cub, Nilson stood motionless for a good while and suddenly smiled without warning, very naturally, with a helpless smile, but also with a touch of a spoiled smile, the firm contour of his face softened with this smile, and actually had a little taste of Carlos’ brother next door….
It was also the first time Micaela had seen him smile like this, and for a moment it looked a little familiar….
-Moya, if you remembered our childhood, you wouldn’t have done this to me.
Micaela frowned, somewhat puzzled by his reaction, as if he had thrown a hard punch and ended up hitting a cotton ball….
She sighed and looked at the sky in the distance.
-Come on, come back with me, my mind doesn’t change, I appreciate this hard earned opportunity to spend time with you, and since you think it’s so strong, make it so for me.
Nilson finished and stepped forward.
He knew Moya would move on because she knew what was right….
Micaela did not expect him to meet his conscience with such an accusation, and after yelling at him, she felt that much of the depression of the last three days had been released, and her whole body was lighter, and the tightness in her chest that she felt before was now much more comfortable….
Half-heartedly, she managed to keep up with him, glancing at the path she had just taken, thinking about the dangling ring and hoping that Charles could also adjust his mind to deal with it all….
If only the wind could carry the message for her, how she would love to tell him, Carlos, don’t worry about me, I’ll take care of me and our baby, and you put reviving the new economy of Echave City first so we can get you out of Salamonsa, no, us, and our baby as planned…