CHAPTER 197

I HAVE NEVER BEEN SO SURE IN MY LIFE

"Are you not going to visit her at the farmhouse?" Clara probed.

"I'm not that evolved," he replied, smiling to the side.

"I don't understand," she said.

"She stayed at my house the day she was discharged from the hospital, Clara, and left in the morning without saying goodbye, just leaving me a note on the fridge saying she would spend a few days at the farmhouse. I could have taken her there, but she called Murilo. They're together at the farmhouse now, and my concern is that he and she, well... they degrade themselves sexually. I'm sorry for telling you this, but you've gone out with her to Jânio's parties and you've seen how she uses sex to vent," he explained.

"Oh my God, Lipe. I'm so sorry," Clara wanted to cry upon hearing that, imagining how much the young man was suffering.

"I guess deep down, I worry that she will resort to old habits that will lead her to relapse, you know, and she has struggled so much to get clean," he confided.

"You a