Estrella Berrocal and Paulita were in the middle of dinner when Adán Rouco came out of Dante’s room.
Estrella Berrocal asked, a bit concerned, “Is Dante still refusing to go out to dinner?”.
Adán Rouco settled in and said, “Leave him alone for now, then I’ll ask Felipa to heat up the food and send it to his room.”
Estrella Berrocal sighed and thought, thinking that this was not going to work, and said, “Adán, why don’t you … ask Olivia Montes to come back to live with you? Dante doesn’t have a father, and now Olivia Montes has gone to live, after all she is still young and needs her mother.”
After all, she and Adán Rouco were not Dante’s real parents, and that kind of affection, even if they wanted to give it, Dante would not accept it.
“It’s okay to ask Olivia Montes to come back to live, then we’ll go back to The Villas at Repulse Bay.”
Previously, Olivia Montes had tried to get Estrella Berrocal to have an abortion, and now that Estrella Berrocal is more than six months pregnant and due to give birth in less than three months, Adán Rouco must watch over her and the baby’s safety in the meantime.
He has lost confidence in Olivia Montes.
After dinner, Estrella Berrocal ordered Felipa to heat up a delicious meal and send it to Dante’s room.
As soon as Felipa came out, Estrella Berrocal was quick to ask: “Well Felipa, did Dante eat?”.
“Yes, Young Hostess, don’t worry, Dante is a sensible boy, he just can’t turn his head for a while, after a few days and a good show from you, he’ll stop.”
Estrella Berrocal lacked that confidence and felt increasingly unsuccessful as a human being.
After dinner, she took a bath and sat on her bed, deep in thought.
He thought about what he had done to Dante and had been thinking about it for a long time.
When Adán Rouco entered the bedroom, he picked her up: “You have just eaten and you are lying down, go for a walk”.
Estrella Berrocal wilts, chin on her back and says, “Well…. I’m not in the mood, why do you think Dante hates me all of a sudden, wasn’t everything fine before? Or is it that I tend to ignore Dante a lot because I care so much about Paulita?”.
When she thought about it, it seemed to her that she didn’t really pay much attention to Dante, but after all, she wasn’t Dante’s real mother, she didn’t have that blood tie, she was just an ordinary person, and to be honest, she couldn’t do the same amount of attention that she gave to Paulita and Dante.
Maybe she could tell the difference in the little girl if Paulita skipped a beat, but she might not pay attention to it if Dante was worried and didn’t tell her.
Adán Rouco patted the back of her hand, “Don’t get carried away, Dante just misses his mom, I’ll ask Olivia Montes to come pick Dante up tomorrow.”
“It would be nice if Dante could stay a few days with Olivia Montes, he misses his mother.”
Adán Rouco looked at his belly and said, “Come on, don’t worry about that, your job now is to unload the merchandise and take a walk”.
Adán Rouco lifted the little woman out of bed and Estrella Berrocal grunted, a little lazily, “Do you want to walk every night now that you do pregnancy yoga?”
“Walking helps childbirth”.
Estrella Berrocal was taken out by Adán Rouco and took the lion cub.
It was night and the neighborhood was quiet, surrounded by French sycamores.
Under the street lights, Estrella Berrocal saw the two figures stretched against each other, extraordinarily calm and happy.
He took out his cell phone and took a picture of the shadow on the ground, but decided it wasn’t interesting enough and asked Adán Rouco to compare love with it.
Adán Rouco had no choice but to play along, and Estrella Berrocal took a photo of the shadow with her arms raised in a sign of love and sent it to her friends.
It was accompanied by two emojis, one of a man and a woman holding hands, followed by a small red heart.
Estrella Berrocal couldn’t resist asking, “Do we look like an old married couple holding hands and walking the dog like this?”.
“Mrs. Rouco, do you want to grow old with me so much?”.
Adán Rouco raised an eyebrow, put his arm around her and kissed her gently on the temple.
Estrella Berrocal rested her head in the crook of his neck and walked slowly with his arm around her. “I wish we could be this close until we were seventy or eighty.”
“Are you saying that because you have no faith in me or in yourself?”
“Well … they say a man’s mouth is a deceitful ghost, so I have to keep an eye on you in case you change your mind one day.”
“Yes, a man’s mouth is a lying ghost.” echoed Adán Rouco.
Estrella Berrocal looked at him crookedly: “It seems that … you have a lot on your mind right now…”
“How dare I.”
Estrella Berrocal got tired of walking and leaned into Adán Rouco’s arms, wrapping her arms around his waist without moving away.
Adán Rouco put his arm around her and looked at her with lowered eyes, “Are you tired after a few steps and not walking?”.
“I just suddenly feel a little frustrated that I can’t handle a toddler.”
“Kids are the hard ones to handle, why are you frustrated.”
Estrella Berrocal rubbed against his arms and Adán Rouco looked at her amused, “Why are you more of a girl when you’re pregnant? Hmm?”
The man’s large hand stroked her short hair down to her neck.
The little woman, she was in the mood.
“The Dante thing is not something that can be rushed through in a day or two. At the end of the day, we are a family, and Dante is a sensible boy, so he will understand.”
Estrella Berrocal sighed and said, “Good thing there are so few relatives in your family, otherwise I’d have a real headache.”
“Even if there are many relatives, you don’t have to deal with them, you can get in touch with whoever you want, you don’t have to worry about that, huh? With me no one will dare to put a bad face on you.”
Estrella Berrocal leaned into his arms and curved her lips, her small arms tightened around his long waist and she breathed in his faint, cold scent deeply. “Adam, I’m glad to have you.”
The image of two shadows embracing in the light was warm.
…
Early the next morning, Olivia Montes picked up Dante.
Estrella Berrocal left Paulita at her school and met Claudio Belles with Angelo Herrán in front of the school.
As soon as they met, the two children exchanged a grunt and went their separate ways with their bags.
Estrella Berrocal and Claudio Belles looked at the haughty backs of the two children and were amused.
“What is this fight?”
Estrella Berrocal said with a smile, “Don’t you know that Paulita said that she had given Rayman Matas, from the senior class, some bear cookies and your son got angry when your Angelo Herrán found out about it?”
Claudio Belles tapped his head, “Angelo Herrán, the boy, is too good at hitting on girls.”
…
Angelo Herran and Paulita arrive in class, the two still not speaking, Lucio Carda, the boy sitting behind Paulita, continues to cut Paulita’s hair with his little scissors.
Paulita turned her head to stare at him, “Lucio Carda, if you keep cutting my hair like that, I’m going to tell the teacher!”.
Lucio Carda was a very naughty boy, and since his father was a government employee, teachers were not usually too bold in disciplining him.
Lucio Carda was very arrogant in class: “I’m going to cut it, you already have short hair, what’s wrong with cutting it shorter?”.
“Hmph! I’m going with the professor!”
Paulita snorted and climbed up, but Lucio Carda stopped her, “You can’t go!”.
Ángelo Herrán, who was sitting to one side, could take no more and snatched the scissors from Lucio Carda’s hand and threw them into the wastebasket.
Lucio Carda was a little afraid of Angelo Herrán because he was a good fighter, but he didn’t want to show weakness and said, “If you hit me, I’ll have my father put you in jail!”
“Lucio Carda, you are legally illiterate! If you bully Paula Rouco again, I’ll make sure you get it!”.
Angelo Herrán warned Lucio Carda before taking Paulita’s hand and walking straight out of the classroom.