A brief silence fell in the great hall….
Nicholas was haunted by an aura of disillusionment, as if his soul had been emptied, and his heart swelled with loss, regret and self-hatred…..
Patricia had saved his body for him, and had returned with the slightest expectation….
Patricia had come this far…
But he…
At that moment, he felt as low as the dust, he really did not deserve Patricia, he did not deserve her….
-Uncle Fernando, for all this you are going to unload your hatred against the innocents of Salamonsa?
Carlos’ cold voice rang out, making Fernando come to his senses and look at him, without any hint of remorse in his eyes.
-That’s right, I was going to frame Nicolas, to discredit him, to make him the sinner of Salamonsa! May he be vilified by the world!
But because of you, Carlos, I failed….
But, Carlos, Salamonsa’s system is intrinsically wrong!
Instead of trying to figure out what the problem is, they just blame it on subliminal -poison- and feed the women poison so they don’t lose it.
I can’t believe there is still no opposition, what kind of hellish country is this?
But if someone had protested from the beginning and abolished such a system, how could Patricia have ended up like this? I want this Salamonsa out of the world.
Fernando’s eyes glittered with a merciless paranoia….
Dash Nilson clenched his fists and said:
-You’re right, the Salamonsa system is really bad, and it’s even crueler to feed the women poison so that they won’t be exiled, depriving them of their right to freedom, but can be placed in the backward Salamonsa of hundreds of years ago….
-And my ass! The way to change Salamonsa like this is to get out of here, one generation at a time! But you selfishly are unwilling to give up the gems of Salamonsa, every generation of your rulers is obsessed with the gems of Salamonsa, counting on the gems to allow Salamonsa to rise to insurmountable heights, stand out, you think I don’t know that?
Fernando interrupted angrily without waiting for Nilson to finish, each word falling to the floor as Nicolas and Nilson froze….
No doubt this is one of the reasons?
Carlos did not say a word, he had seen this point clearly, the weakness of human nature, in short, there is only one greed….
There is no point in going into that now, and Carlos brings the conversation back to the point:
-So it took you more than a decade to buy Mr. Nicolas’ assistant to do your bidding, breed the rabies virus and use it to release rabies-injected cats in Salamonsa?
Fernando nodded his head.
-That’s right, I couldn’t stay long in Salamonsa, the only way was to establish control here, and I had a hard time waiting until one time, this bastard went out on an errand with his assistant, and I had wanted to kill him, but it didn’t work, but I kidnapped his assistant, threatened him to be my puppet, and then I threw myself into working on the virus, and finally waited for the day, just when I found out, that you had returned to the Anlandana….
Nicholas stepped forward, bent down, grabbed him by the shirt on his chest and shouted angrily:
-What revenge do you have against me, what are you doing hurting those innocent people?
-Bah!
Fernando, unable to struggle with his arms and legs fastened to the stool, spat in Nicolas’ face.
-Do you think I don’t want to? It’s only a matter of time before I kill you, but those who saw Patricia drink the poison in cold blood deserve to die, and I want them with me.
Nicolas took a step back and wiped his face with his sleeve, just as furious.
-Psychopath, Patricia wouldn’t want a murderer like you even if she didn’t want me!
Fernando did not feel at all vilified by the comment, and there was a touch of self-deprecation in his tone.
-Meh, she wouldn’t love me even if I wasn’t a murderer…..
Nilson’s heart skipped a beat, certain once again that the man before him was sober, that he had not gone mad because he was in love, that he knew exactly what he was doing….
Nicolas was shocked and incredibly heartbroken….
This man, who truly loved Patricia, even if the love was twisted and unanswered, still loved deeply….
Carlos looked at Fernando with a deep helplessness in his eyes.
-Uncle Fernando, you shouldn’t have done this, those people who died were innocent, they shouldn’t have to pay for your paranoia. If my mother saw what is happening now, she would not want you to be like this. She went back to Salamonsa even though she was waiting for Mr. Nicolas, but even if she had not married and had children, my mother would not have stayed with him, there are people and things that are missed, and you know it, and she knows it. Even knowing that she was going to die, she went back to Salamentro, of her own free will, and before the interim she took my father’s hand and simply told him: ‘She doesn’t regret anything’…. Uncle Fernando, my mother left everything a long time ago, how long will you hold on to it?