“BOOM!”
Esteban Zaragosa hit Claudio Belles, hard, in the face.
Blood spurted from the corner of Claudio Belles’ mouth when he punched him, so hard he almost felt his teeth fall out!
He was angry, wasn’t he?
Esteban Zaragosa looked at her coldly: “I don’t punch women, but Claudio Belles, you really stepped on my feet!”.
Claudius Belles licked the blood from his teeth, his gaze fixed on him, “The bottom line? Since when is your bottom a woman? How many days have you known her? What matters is the brother or the woman.”
“If you had the self-awareness to put yourself in the position of a brother, I wouldn’t have punched you today. Claudio Belles, I have never seen you as a woman, so I advise you to stop being paranoid.”
“…”
Claudio Belles’ fists clenched and snapped as she was thrown off the floor.
He made a call directly.
“Check, Dulcina Calvo, I want everything about her!”
…
Esteban Zaragosa re-entered the bedroom, his pupils narrowing as his eyes fell on the small, dark red flower in the center of the bedspread.
She sat on the edge of the bed and reached up to press her temples, her mind, filled with the crying girl.
The night before he had possessed her for the first time in her innocence, and the next morning Claudius Belles had come to stir things up.
The first few times he had lied to her, telling her that she had been skin to skin with him and that he couldn’t cheat on her. Dulcina was innocent and had always thought he had given it to her a long time ago.
Dulcina was a good girl and he had always known that good girls don’t get involved with a man who has a marriage certificate, so he had stepped on her most unacceptable moral line, and although, he and Claudio Belles had pretended to be married to complete their mission, that marriage certificate, was real.
The more Esteban Zaragosa thought about it, the more irritated he became and the more his heart choked.
When he looked up, he saw that Dulcina’s computer had been left here, forgotten, and that it contained the paper he had helped her check the night before.
He didn’t want to part with the girl, he had searched for her for so many years, he had found her so easily and deceived her so easily, how could he let her go.
…
On this side, Estrella Berrocal took Dulcina Calvo back to La Villa Rouco.
Dulcina was crying so much, probably too much, that Estrella Berrocal put her in the guest room, where she fell asleep, with many tear stains under her eyes.
Downstairs came the sound of Paulita’s chattering voice.
“Star! Star! We’re back! Dad and I saw the peacock open this afternoon.”
Estrella Berrocal came down the stairs, smiled and approached Paulita to stroke her little head.
“Was the peacock good?”
The little bundle of milk blinked, “Yes, it opened wide! It’s just that you didn’t come with us, you didn’t see it!”.
“Next time I’ll go with you.”
Adam Rouco frowned a little as he saw that he was not wearing the same home clothes he had on in the morning, but the clothes he wore to go out, “Out?”
“Yes, something has happened to Dulcina.”
Paulita had already run off to the side to get something to eat, and it was then that Adán Rouco asked her, “What’s wrong?”
Estrella Berrocal looked up and said, “Dulcina is sleeping in the guest room, what about Esteban Zaragosa, is he married, why is he messing with Dulcina?”
“What do you mean?” Adán Rouco froze.
“You don’t know that Esteban Zaragosa has a wife, ID, and this morning Mrs. If I had known that Esteban Zaragosa was married, I wouldn’t have been a third party.”
Seeing Estrella Berrocal’s anger, Adán Rouco said, “There may have been a misunderstanding, Esteban Zaragosa is not one of those who are irresponsible and do foolish things.”
“Well, what kind of misunderstanding is there? Mrs. Esteban was about to throw the marriage certificate in Dulcina’s face and humiliate her, and this Esteban Zaragosa, he’s so shameless! He doesn’t want Dulcina to be his shadow canary, does he? Who is he?”
Adán Rouco looked at her and smiled slightly, “When did you become so cynical?”.
“I … Dulcina is my best friend! Of course I’m going to fight for her!”
“Or shall I ask Esteban Zaragosa later?”
Estrella Berrocal frowned: “There’s nothing more to ask, being married and messing with good girls, that kind of person has a bad heart! How elegant you men are!”.
Adán Rouco raised an eyebrow: “Wait, Mrs. Rouco, don’t go and load a ship with the stroke of a pen”.
“… Are you going to be like Esteban Zaragosa in the future, going out behind your wife’s back looking for pretty young girls?”
“Why am I going out looking for young, pretty girls when I have young, pretty girls in front of me?”.
Estrella Berrocal was delighted: “Mr. Adam, finally you feel like living and you can say the standard answer”.
Adán Rouco: …
…
Dulcina Calvo woke up when Estrella Berrocal and Paulita brought bowls of red date soup and silver ear.
“You are hungry, have some soup to fill your belly first, then we will start dinner, you can leave after dinner.”
Paulita called Dulcina Calvo, “Aunt Dulcina”.
Dulcina Calvo replied and caressed Paulita’s face, “How cute.”
Paulita blinked her big eyes, “Aunt Dulcina are you crying? It’s not nice to cry.”
“Yes, Aunt Dulcina doesn’t cry anymore.”
After dinner, Estrella Berrocal didn’t want Dulcina Calvo to go home alone, so she asked Adán Rouco to drive her.
As Adán Rouco drove Dulcina Calvo home, Dulcina Calvo sat in the back seat and finally couldn’t resist asking, “President Rouco, did you know that … knew that Esteban Zaragosa had been with the couple for some time?”
“I didn’t know, if I did I would have asked Estrella to remind her.”
“How can he do that, how can he.”
Dulcina Calvo bit her lip and the tears she had been holding back for so long came again.
Adán Rouco said sensibly, “I have known Esteban Zaragosa for many years, he is not a disorderly person, there may really have been some misunderstanding, but I know that now you are not going to listen to those explanations. So all you have to do now is adjust your mind and do what you have to do, don’t think about it.”
“I’m not going to think twice about someone like that.”
But his chest was as heavy, heavy as the weather before a heavy summer rain.
Adán Rouco dropped Dulcina Calvo off at the apartment building, and as soon as he got out of the car he saw Esteban Zaragosa leaning against it, smoking a cigarette.
She didn’t even bother and went straight up when Esteban Zaragosa caught up with her.
“Dear.
Dulcina Calvo’s eyes were red-rimmed and she took her hand from his palm with the full force of hatred in her eyes.
I hated him. I hated him even!
“Don’t touch me, dirty.”
Esteban Zaragosa had a look of dejection and pain in his eyes, and his open hand, which had nowhere to go, had to be stuffed into his pants pocket.
“My dear, I came to tell you that lately I have had some work commitments and I have to return to Italy for a while …”
Before I could finish the sentence, Dulcina Calvo said with a cold little face, “It’s none of my business where you’re going, you don’t need to tell me. You should talk to your wife about these things, not to me, and I hope you keep it a secret from the others and don’t tell anyone what happened before us, it’s really humiliating and shameless.”
With those words, Dulcina Calvo turned around and entered the building without looking back.
Esteban Zaragosa clenched the cigarette, the scarlet flame hot, extinguished in the palm of his hand, burning in a mess so numb with pain.