Nicholas exhaled and also leaned back, looking somewhat distant, and spoke slowly of those distant memories:
-It started forty years ago. Your mother, Yerma, Patricia and Elsa went to high school together in Dragon City and were great friends.
That’s when I met your mother and fell in love with her, at first sight.
From high school through college, Patricia and I went back and forth between the first and second of our grade, chasing each other and having fun….
Patricia was always cold to everyone and my only hobby at that time was to force her to be different, even if she got mad, I was glad to see it and thought it would show that I was special.
It was also because to outsiders we seemed like such sabres that both Yerma and Elsa thought we were impossible, but Patricia and I actually really loved each other, and we were intensely fond of each other when we were alone.
Carlos and Micaela looked at Nicolas, as if he had fallen into a whirlwind of memories, the deep love and affection so evident in his eyes, as if Patricia were standing in front of him, leaving them both with a slight discomfort not to ask, What about your fiance?
But Nicholas took it upon himself to say:
-Since I was sure of my feelings for Patricia, I repeatedly manifested to my family that I was going to withdraw from Evangelina, but my family did not agree, and it was said that this marriage, arranged since I was a child, was so important that it would allow me to live beyond 45 years….
Nicolas pauses, the tenderness in his eyes disperses….
Carlos frowned, Nicolas did cross the 45 years barrier….
-Things took a turn for the worse right after graduating from college when Patricia found out I was engaged and she hit rock bottom and hated me for cheating on her, I didn’t try to lie to her, I kept trying to break off the engagement and didn’t tell her because I knew with how high spirits she was bound to leave me when she found out.
After that, she started to distance herself from me, but I loved her and pestered her despite resistance from both families, and she resisted me, resisted me beyond her strength, because we were mutually attracted to each other. I told her countless times that I was determined to be with her…..
But she left anyway, at a time when I had given up everything to be with her. Nicolas has red eyes.
-At the time, I couldn’t understand the pressure she was under to be with me, I only knew what I had done for her, that I had turned my back on my family and thrown away my qualification to succeed the City Lord just to be with her, but she abandoned me at the right time, her self-righteousness, for my own sake, ruining the future I had so painstakingly designed for the two of us, and I thought, she still must not love me enough to choose to leave me, and she didn’t even know she was pregnant with our child at the time! Nicholas’ expression is pained and his voice is slightly cracked, tilting his head slightly to hold back tears.
-The biggest mistake of my life was seeing her leave, she took the Antinolol and I thought I was going to make her regret it, and when she came back fifteen years later and regretted leaving me, I married Evangelina, I became the Lord of the City, I was going to be at the top of the pyramid and I was going to laugh at her for leaving me!
-Bang!
Carlos hit the table with his fist and stood up, his face covered with frost, making the cups of the tea set jump….
Micaela dropped a tear at the sound and, startled by Carlos’ action, got up too….
Carlos stared at Nicolas, his chest heaving, his eyes full of hate and his voice full of hatred.
-And you don’t deserve his love!
Micaela grabbed his arm.
-Carlos, calm down. ….
Micaela’s nasal voice made Carlos come to his senses and he looked at the girl next to him, with tears in his eyes, which rolled the moment he turned around because he couldn’t carry them, which caused Carlos to sadden and reach out his hand to brush away his tears….
Micaela avoided him, in front of the elders, she was too embarrassed to be so close. She pulled him towards her seat and sat down herself, wiping her tears with the back of her hand, gripping Carlos’ hand tightly with one hand, looking at Nicolas, thinking about what he had said, she was heartbroken, very broken, broken by this couple who loved each other but missed the previous generation….
-Mr. Nicolas, actually Aunt Patricia loves you, loves you very much, and where you do not see it, her family, your wife’s family, must have pressured her to commit herself in an exhausted way, but more than that, it must be so as not to embarrass you, so that you do not fall into disrepute of her, so that you can cross that one.
Then he looked at Carlos and lowered his voice a little.
-And to change the fate of your children….
Carlos’s expression was also one of undisguised pain….
Everything Micaela said hit the nail on the head, stabbed Nicolas in the heart and caused him pain and tears….
Yes, she did not know that the previous mother had gone to Patricia’s parents and Evangelina’s parents had gone to them, Patricia was forced to….
She raised her hand and covered her eyes, unable to speak for a long time…