When Esteban Zaragosa returned from the training camp, Dulcina Calvo had already showered, her hair damp, wrapped in a pale pink towel, her face a healthy flush from the heat, her skin so white without makeup that even up close you couldn’t see her pores, and she looked like a peeled egg, a little young.
“You’re back.”
Esteban Zaragosa looked at her with deep dark eyes and moved closer to her, wrapping her in an embrace.
Dulcina Calvo was slightly dazed and the towel fell from her head, her damp hair loose.
“Don’t ever do anything so dangerous for me again.”
Dulcina Calvo didn’t answer for a moment, “Hmm? What’s so dangerous?”
Esteban Zaragosa stared at her, “You were assaulted by packs of wolves trying to get to Benandstar, and if Claudius hadn’t arrived, do you know what would have happened?”
Seeing his serious look, Dulcina Calvo puffed out her little face: “But I can’t just sit here and watch you die, I want to do something for you too, what Claudio can do for you, I can do for you too”.
Dulcina Calvo lowers her little face slightly and continues, “Everyone says we’re not well, but who are they to say we’re not well. I just want to prove that Claudio can do what he was born to do for you, and so can I. I deserve that you love me too. I deserve that you love me too”.
Esteban Zaragosa slipped the lump in his throat, hid the violent beating of his chest and said, “I don’t need you to prove anything to me, I just need you to stay with me in peace.”
Dulcina Calvo bit her lip, “I know I’m useless, obviously I went to Benandstar to save you, but in the end I had to let Claudio save me.”
Esteban Zaragosa reached out and took the girl in his arms and hugged her tightly, “You are brave and amazing.”
Dulcina Calvo’s eyes narrowed at the man’s compliment and her little face tilted to look at him with glee, “Really? The truth is, I think I’m pretty good, I tell you when I was surrounded by wolves, I wasn’t afraid at all, even if Claudio hadn’t come to my rescue, I could have killed them with my bare hands.”
Esteban Zaragosa watched the girl in his arms glowing with boastfulness and his heart flooded with pain; she must have been so frightened that his legs gave way as he saw himself beset by a pack of wolves.
But even in that situation, he brought back Benand Star.
His girl, very brave.
Esteban Zaragosa watched her with growing tenderness, listening quietly and patiently to the girl chattering in his ear.
But when Dulcina Calvo had been talking for quite a while, her face fell again and she said with sincerity “The truth is that I have not been so good, I even fell in the snow and only now, when I was taking a shower, I realized that my knee was purple”.
Esteban Zaragosa pulled her up onto his lap and sat on the edge of the bed, his voice low, “Let me see.”
The man’s large hand, rolled up his pant leg.
The girl had a hematoma on her knee.
Esteban Zaragosa’s brow furrowed, “I’ll go to the infirmary to get some pills to strengthen the blood.”
After Esteban Zaragosa left for the infirmary, Yanamaría Félix prepared to go back to bed in her bedroom.
“What brings you here?”
“I’ve come for some medicine.”
Yanamaria Felix asked, “What kind of medicine?”
“An ointment to invigorate the blood and eliminate blood stasis.”
Yanamaria Felix looked at him with an ambiguous expression, “What have you done to someone’s little girl?”.
Esteban Zaragosa: “…. Don’t speculate with your filthy mind. dulcina only has a knee injury. ”
Yanamaria Felix smiled even more uncertainly, “Oh~ knee injury, you got it?”
Esteban Zaragosa: “…”
I don’t even want to talk to this woman!
Esteban Zaragosa returned from fetching the ointment and placed Dulcina Calvo’s leg in his own lap, rubbing the ointment in his large hands and massaging the knee.
Dulcina Calvo put two small hands on his shoulders: “It hurts a little, be careful”.
Esteban Zaragosa’s eyes were full of pain, but his mouth lectured, “Let’s see if you dare do something dangerous again.”
Dulcina Calvo flattened her little mouth and said without hesitation, “If you were in danger, I’d still get into this, I’d do anything to save you, let alone get you a little hurt.”
Esteban Zaragosa hung his head, looking at the wound, and there was a moment of silence.
The man then lifted her face, grabbed the back of her neck and kissed her.
…
The next morning, Esteban Zaragosa took Dulcina Calvo back to La Ciudad Santa.
Perhaps because of her pregnancy, Dulcina Calvo slept through the entire flight, sleeping through the night.
After arriving in the Holy City a dozen hours later, Esteban Zaragosa left the plane half dragging, half carrying the girl.
After returning to her small apartment, Dulcina Calvo refused to get up once she was next to the familiar, fluffy bed, running her little hands across the soft pillows and murmuring, “It’s still the most comfortable one at home …”.
Esteban Zaragosa sits on the edge of the bed, looking at her with a slightly tired look on his handsome face.
He reached up and touched the little girl’s small face; she must have been exhausted during this time.
…
Dulcina Calvo took a long leave of absence from the hospital and took Esteban Zaragosa back to Ciudad de Ronda.
Esteban Zaragosa was driving and Dulcina Calvo sat in the passenger seat, eating chips in silence, looking out the window and saying: “I always feel that this is not the way home, this is the way to execution”.
Esteban Zaragosa laughed out loud: “Are your parents scarier than the wolf pack around you?”.
“Then, of course, the wolf would still look at me as a cutie and might let me go free, but my parents would be lucky not to beat me to death if they knew I had done something as treacherous as being single and `pregnant,’ but the result would more than likely be that they would beat me to death and banish me from the house.”
“I will protect you.”
Esteban Zaragosa freed one hand and took her small hand in his, reassuring her.
Dulcina Calvo was worried the whole time.
When I got to the door, I took several deep breaths and didn’t dare knock.
Dulcina Calvo tugged on Esteban Zaragosa’s arm, with her bitter little face: “Why don’t we look at the long term! I feel like we’re going to get killed if we’re so reckless.”
Who knew that Esteban Zaragosa had reached out and knocked on the door.
Inside, Mother Dulcina’s voice came: “Who is it?
Dulcina Calvo’s watery eyes momentarily widened.
When the door opened, Mother Dulcina saw Dulcina Calvo for the first time and was about to ask, “Why did you suddenly come back today? …”
No sooner had the question been asked, and the smile on her face had not completely faded, when she saw an unexpected visitor next to Dulcina Calvo.
Mother Dulcina’s face instantly fell: “What are you doing here? You are not welcome in our house.”
Mother Dulcina’s tone was aggressive and extremely unforgiving, but Esteban Zaragosa spoke politely and said, “Aunt, this time I came to apologize. I also wanted to talk to you and uncle, about my affair with Dulcina. ”
“Mom, can you let us come in and talk first? Esteban Zaragosa is having a really hard time, he’s not a bad man who abandoned his original spouse…”
Mother Dulcina looked at the things Esteban Zaragosa was carrying and her tone became heavier and her face colder: “Now, take these things of yours and get out of my sight! Don’t you ever come near my daughter again.”
Mother Dulcina grabbed Dulcina Calvo’s arm and pulled her into the house with great force.
Dulcina Calvo could not contain herself and said hurriedly: “Mom, I’m pregnant by Esteban Zaragosa!