The next morning, Esteban Zaragosa woke up with a pain in his stomach.
He looked down at the girl still sleeping in his arms and cautiously got out of bed and headed for the living room.
Just as we got to the lounge, the phone rang and caller ID, Tom Paul.
As soon as he answered the phone, Tom Paul sputtered and cursed.
“Esteban Zaragosa, do you want to die? As your family doctor, I am always the last to know about your condition! When Claudio told me last night that you had a relapse of your stomach problem, I worried all night and called you and you didn’t answer, how can you be so capricious as a patient?”
Esteban Zaragosa put a hand to his brow bone, a little startled by the shrill voice of Tom Paul, Claudio Belles, the troublemaker, who was afraid of the world.
“Mr. Esteban? Are you listening?”
“Tom Paul, it’s eight o’clock in the morning on my end, you know, I’ve got the wake-up call.”
Tom Paul over there, the corners of his mouth twitched, “You have a wake-up call, I’m afraid of you, but you’re in China now and I’m in Rome, I’m not afraid of you, go back to Rome and show me what you can do!”
Esteban Zaragosa closed his eyes and rubbed his temples with his long fingers.
Tom Paul added: “Do you know that six years ago you were a man who had surgery for stomach cancer? I thought you were mature enough to take care of your own life, but when did you become so ignorant? I heard from Claudio that you’re in love, you’re not in love because of that damn love, that’s why you caused your stomach problem to come back!”
“Claudio Belles really talks too much.”
“If it weren’t for Claudio, I wouldn’t have found out until now. Mr. Esteban, you yourself are a doctor, a magnificent one, don’t you know that you are really going to die if you take so little care of your body?”
Esteban Zaragosa did not want to listen to any more of Tom Paul’s sermons and simply hung up the phone.
He got up and touched his stomach, then went to the kitchen, poured himself a glass of water and took the medicine.
Tom Paul was freaking out on the other end, sending a bunch of messages.
“You must return to Rome for treatment immediately!”
“Or I will kill The Holy City!”
“Esteban Zaragosa you are dead!”
Esteban Zaragosa simply ignores the hackneyed messages and leans back on the sofa, thinking about six years ago.
Six years ago, Dulcina Calvo had just turned eighteen.
By then, he had found her and was trying to enter her life when he discovered she had stomach cancer.
He had to keep hiding.
When Dulcina Calvo was with Lázaro Morejón three years ago, after he had almost recovered from his stomach ailment, he returned to La Ciudad Santa to see her again and she was already with another man, smiling.
He had kept his girl, at the tip of his heart, for ten years, ten years in which he had had only one piece of information to know about her life before officially intervening in it.
For example, photos, videos.
Now that he had had her so, but so easily, close, how could he give up on this girl so easily.
…
Esteban Zaragosa lies down on the sofa, closes his eyes for a moment, perhaps too tired, and dozes off.
When Dulcina Calvo came out of the bedroom, she saw him sleeping on the sofa and ran to him, trying to cover him with a blanket, only to wake the man, who took her small hand in his.
“Did I wake you up?”
“No, I wasn’t sleeping well.”
Esteban Zaragosa’s heart filled with satisfaction as he held her soft little body.
Dulcina Calvo’s warm little hand, feeling her stomach, asked with concern, “Is your stomach still hurting? Is it better to go to the hospital again?”
Last night, I had scared the hell out of her when she locked herself in the bathroom and hugged the toilet and threw up.
“Does it scare you?”
Dulcina Calvo shook her head and said earnestly, “I’m just concerned about your health.”
Dulcina Calvo ran to the kitchen to make porridge for Esteban Zaragosa. The man washed up and stood at the kitchen door, looking at her tiny figure, preparing breakfast for her, with all the warmth in the world.
When he stepped out onto the balcony, he found his balcony, full of women’s clothes hanging.
Esteban Zaragosa scanned the building across the street, so close that, without the curtains drawn, it would be easy for someone across the street to peek into his life if he had bad intentions.
The man’s eyes sunk and his brow furrowed as he laid out one of his men’s jackets, hanging it on the balcony.
…
******
La Villa Rouco, breakfast table.
Paulita cupped a cherry in her small hand and brought it to Estrella Berrocal’s mouth, “Estrella”.
Estrella Berrocal opened her mouth, ate and peeled Paulita’s eggs when Paulita said with a slight frown, “Estrella, today we have a father-son sports day, but daddy has to work today! You can ask daddy to join us for the father-son sports day!”.
Estrella Berrocal looked amused at the little girl: “No wonder, there must be a reason for the courtship”.
“The teacher said we have to run the baton relay! If Dad doesn’t go, how am I going to run by myself?”
As we speak, Adán Rouco has come down the stairs in a black suit.
“What’s all this talk about?” The man was wearing his wristwatch as he approached the table.
Paulita’s brow furrowed when she saw her father dressed as a man: “How can he run in that? He’s going to come in last.”
Adán Rouco froze: “Hmm? What running?”.
Estrella Berrocal stroked the little boy’s head and said, “Paulita said that today there was a parent-child activity session in class, a kind of baton relay race, and the truth is that it wasn’t convenient for you to participate dressed like that.”
Paulita growled and played pathetic: “Star stop, daddy mustn’t go, work is much more important than Paulita!”.
“…”
Adán Rouco looked amused at his daughter, the jealousy was so strong that it seemed exactly like that of some little woman.
The man’s big hand stroked his daughter’s little head and he picked her up in his arms, “Who says Daddy’s not going? When are you going to run? How about you and Star go first and Daddy will come after the meeting?”
“Then don’t be late, Dad! I don’t want to take last place, it’s too humiliating!”
“Okay, how about a race first for you?”
Paulita clapped her hands and smiled, “Yes!”.
After saying this, the little boy barks a big kiss on Adam Rouco’s face.
…
Estrella Berrocal first took Paulita to the nursery and met Claudio Belles with his son Angelo Herran.
Angelo Herrán frowned slightly and asked condescendingly, “Paula Rouco, is your father coming for a run today?”
Paulita also gave a condescending grunt, lifted her little chin and said, “My daddy said he’d come running for me first!”.
Angelo Herran growled slightly, “Your father is a fast runner, but you sure can’t run with your short legs, you’re going to slow your father down.”
“Hmph, you’re the one with the short legs, I’m just not old enough yet, and when I grow up, I’m sure I’ll be long-legged! Because my dad is the one with the long legs.”
Angelo Herran said with a proud look on his face, “My dad is long-legged too, and when you and your dad, can’t run anymore than me and my dad, you’re going to be embarrassed!”
Estrella Berrocal and Claudio Belles watched the two children’s discussions with amusement.
“Claudio, why is your son so arrogant?”
Claudius Belles looked puzzled: “He probably follows his father! But … I see that my son, he has something with his daughter”.
Estrella Berrocal froze: “Really?”.
“Only when Angelo likes someone does he insist on pissing her off, otherwise he doesn’t even care, look at him, he keeps messing with Paulita. ”
Estrella Berrocal was about to burst into laughter: “Are children like this now?
After a few moments, Paulita came running up to me, shouting: “Estrella! Angelo Herrán is harassing me”.