Sister Rouco, sitting in the main seat, gave a majestic grunt and said to Dante, “Dante, if you don’t like egg yolks, don’t eat them, they have a lot of cholesterol and are not good. At Grandpa’s age, doctors don’t advise me to eat egg yolks, a protein supplement is fine.”
Olivia Montes bit her red lip, it was clear that the old man was choosing Estrella Berrocal’s side.
Paulita pursed her little lips and said, “Grandpa is right, egg yolks are not nutritious or tasty, Estrella you shouldn’t eat them either.”
Estrella Berrocal smiled, “I don’t hate egg yolks as much as you do, I’m not picky.”
Dante, still obedient, asked Olivia Montes: “Mom, is it okay if I don’t eat the yolks?”.
Olivia Montes swallowed saliva and spat two words in a very low voice: “As you wish.”
Dante surreptitiously removed the yolk and ate no more.
The old man finished eating and went to read the newspaper on the side of the sofa.
Adán Rouco also went upstairs to change to go to the office.
At the table were only Estrella Berrocal, Olivia Montes and the two children.
Paulita, always talkative, chattered, “Star, where did you and daddy go the other day? Why weren’t you home?”
Estrella Berrocal smiled and said, “I went on a trip with your father.”
The little girl grunted and pouted, “I want to go too, but you’re not even taking Paulita.”
“Next time, when daddy’s eyes are better, we’ll go together, okay?”.
“Yes! Cheers!”
Paulita was so happy that she bumped her glass of milk with Estrella Berrocal’s little hand, smiling and looking especially cute.
Olivia Montes listened to their conversation with a special sense of discomfort.
Only to hear Estrella Berrocal add, “Paulita, your father and I have gotten another marriage license this time in Ireland.”
Olivia Montes’ eyes fluttered.
Paulita asked incredulously, “Why did you guys get it twice?”.
Dante, also particularly curious, said, “Auntie, I saw on TV that only divorced couples get a second marriage license. Did you and your uncle get a divorce?”
“Of course not, because there is a country where you can get a marriage certificate for a hundred years, so you get a second one.”
Olivia Montes’ heart ached, a marriage for a hundred years?
What did Adam mean, spend the rest of his life with Estrella Berrocal?
Olivia Montes’ face turned gray as Estrella Berrocal curved her lips, looked at her and said, “Have you heard, sister-in-law? The marriage certificate in that country of Ireland, you can choose the date of the marriage, the longer the date you choose, the cheaper the fee, I asked Adam at the time how long he wanted to choose and he said he wanted a hundred years, I told him that in a hundred years we would both be gone and we wouldn’t be able to use it, but he refused, he thought a hundred years was romantic.”
Olivia Montes heart, thin and cold, clutched his fingers silver fork dinner, even a little trembling, but the face pulled the lips, forced a smile, said: “Really? I have … never heard of that one.”
Paulita’s eyes rolled back and forth, calculating how long a hundred years was: “Star, in a hundred years, will I be a big Paulita? Or a very old Paulita, very old?”.
Estrella Berrocal was amused and reached out to stroke her daughter’s head. “Even in another hundred years, you will still be Paulita in front of me.”
When Adán Rouco stepped down from his suit, Estrella Berrocal got up and approached him, noticing that his tie was not knotted properly and his collar was not straightened, she raised her hand and straightened it for him, saying, “Do you want to go to the doctor again recently, it’s not easy being blind.”
Although, she could always be his crutch, he must have been exhausted from working.
Adán Rouco laughed lightly: “Tired of being my crutch?
“I’d like to be your crutch for the rest of my life so you’d never be without me, but isn’t that what I’m doing for you?”.
Estrella Berrocal was about to pull her small hand away after straightening his tie when he grabbed it with his own.
Before Estrella Berrocal could intuit what he was about to do, the man had taken her small hand and brought it to his thin lips and kissed it.
Estrella Berrocal froze and her ears flushed. “Dad is still in the living room … everyone is watching…”
Adam Rouco looked down and teased in her ear, “Didn’t you invite me to show my love with you last night?”
“…”
This man, how sinister!
Olivia Montes, sitting at the table, naturally saw it all, was pale and her hand, clutching the dinner fork, couldn’t help but push harder.
Estrella Berrocal was pleased with herself, wasn’t she?
He dropped the silverware directly onto the plate with a very hard sound, hugged Dante and said, “Dante, come on, let’s take you to school.”
Dante asked, “Mom, aren’t we going to accompany our sister?”.
But Olivia Montes, without answering Dante, took Dante directly out of the house.
Paulita reached up to her little mouth and bit into her soft toast and said, “Is Auntie angry, I don’t like angry aunties, they are so mean.”
Estrella Berrocal couldn’t help but laugh, “Surely the aunt is in a bad mood because she’s been so busy with work lately, you better not mess with her lately.”
“So my brother won’t have any problems? The teacher said that when adults are in a bad mood, children have bad luck too.” Said the little boy as he licked the strawberry jam from the side of his little mouth.
“…”
This Paulita, what a human child!
…
On her lunch break, Olivia Montes woke up in a cold sweat all over her back.
I had had a very short but real dream.
She dreamed that she and Dante had been kicked out of The Rouco Family by Estrella Berrocal, Sr. Rouco would not help them, and Adán coldly turned away as she held Dante, abandoned in the pouring rain, with nowhere else to go.
No … it could not be left in such a passive position.
Before Estrella Berrocal joined La familia Rouco, the old man had clearly been in her favor, even when Estrella Berrocal had initially arrived, the old man had hated Estrella Berrocal and had always been on her side, but why had even the old man started to turn against her now?
The last time Julieta Sarinana had been a guest on The Rouco Family, Adán and Estrella Berrocal had reacted badly when the second child had been mentioned.
He had long suspected that Estrella Berrocal had already had a second child and was only hiding it from him.
The old man must have known it too, and it must have been because of the child in Estrella Berrocal’s belly that the old man had begun to turn to Estrella Berrocal as well.
But his Dante, who is the eldest son, is not the son of Paulita and Estrella Berrocal.
What will happen to Dante if he stands idly by?
What would happen to her Dante if the old man, who loved Paulita so much, also loved the child that Estrella Berrocal is carrying in her womb?
Oscar, if he were still alive, would not have let them be treated so unfairly.
The tears, slowly falling from her eyes, and the hatred and determination, but they were there.
If only for Dante’s sake, I should have fought for him!
…
After work, Olivia Montes drove her car and saw countless small advertisements placed on roadside poles, including some for humans. Some of the small ads in the stream.
“Zero surgery, zero risk, one hundred percent abortion…. Abortion! Medical abortion, you deserve it!”
The small ads were followed by a string of phone numbers.
Olivia Montes’ eyes shrank.