ENCOUNTERS

When Angelo arrived home, he couldn't sleep. He was sorry for having despised Vivian's offer. His mind was in turmoil, not only because of his encounter with Max, whom he always considered a brother, but also because of everything that had happened with Ximena, to whom he felt very attracted. He got tired of tossing and turning in his bed and decided to get up to have a glass of milk. He had so many things going around in his head that his head was already round.

“Max, how could he do that to me? He was always a brother to me, we grew up together.” He spoke to the mirror. “Maybe ambition and stupid resentments combined to create that explosion of betrayal and dishonor; on the other hand, there is the beautiful Ximena. It had been a long time since I liked a woman so much. Maybe it would be time to please my grandfather and get a wife, although it would be this one and not the one he forced me to marry.”

Suddenly he froze; he did not remember that he was still married; he could not get married again, that would be bigamy, according to the divorce document he never signed. Desperate, he called Luis, another trustworthy man, and went to his room, where he was sleeping with three women.

“Luis, I don't understand,” he said, waking him up.

“Angel little, they are my tastes; what happens is that I have a very big heart,” he answered sleepily.

“It's not that, although I could understand two women, what about three? It's possible that one of them might be unsatisfied, but it's not that; it turns out that I didn't remember that I'm still married to that opportunist.”

“Maybe! Chief, those papers are in your villa in Sicily. Remember, that day was very complicated.”

“I don't know why I almost don't remember that day.”

“Many things happened that were difficult to assimilate for all of us. Remember that we were in your villa; a great amount of money had been stolen from us. Checking the security cameras, we knew who it had been. It was not easy, but we captured that traitor. You personally were in charge of torturing him; you took him as a boxing pear. The poor man was saying,

“Sir, please don't; I don't know anything; please stop,” and he was crying, until later he went dignified, spitting his teeth, and I listened to him.

“Kill me at once, take out your gun and hit him, or lend it to me that I will blow it up,” that set your heart on fire, and you hit him with everything. That poor fool endured a lot; anyone in his place would have been knocked out. At the end, he cried, saying,

“No, please, boss, it was Max; the idea was his; he convinced us to betray, and he took all the money; he left us with nothing.” We all thought you were going to leave that crybaby to the sharks, but right there you beat him to a pulp, leaving him unrecognizable; it affected you a lot; we all knew how much you loved Max; I remember how many times I got them drunk out of so many brothels, and as if that wasn't enough, that housekeeper arrived with that blessed paper of your divorce.”

“That was good news; I didn't care about her, she was a freeloader,” Angelo grumbled.

“I didn't think so, we all could see in your eyes how you collapsed internally; look, Angelo, I saw you born and grow up, I tried to be a father to you; I know you very well, that's why I know that it altered you; I don't know the reason, because you avoided going to your villa during those three years of that marriage; I know how you were sleeping in the office; I don't know the reason you didn't continue with that relationship; you already had your head inside; you were already legally married.”

“Luis, you are wrong; you do not remember well. That traitor sang more than Pavarotti; he told us that Max would meet with several of our enemies to deliver confidential information. He told us the date, time, and place. The beggar wanted to save himself by selling his dog. I think it served him; if he had not collaborated, he would have been chopped or skinned alive. At no time did the housekeeper bring that paper. It was when I decided to go visit my grandfather to tell him personally about these dilemmas with Max. I knew that he also appreciated it very much, being there with my grandfather, who first scolded me for my absence. I had to interrupt him with these matters, and as I supposed, that betrayal affected him. He was embarrassed in his seat and cried. I don't know if it was because of the senility or if I loved him more than I thought. I told him that I knew that he would meet us to destroy us and that I would have to kill him. He cried even louder, like a child's tantrum. As if that wasn't enough, the phone rang, interrupting his crying. She was the housekeeper with that bomb; the stupid woman didn't know anything about prudence, and she let my grandfather know. That woman was a stranger to me; she was listed as my wife; she had left signing the divorce paper and renouncing any indemnity or inheritance from me or my family; I liked that; but for my grandfather, it was like a bucket of cold water; his crying was erased, and his face became congested. I got scared and pressed a button that called his nurses because of my nerves. I pressed the wrong button for the bodyguards, who arrived pointing their rifles; fortunately, they knew which was the right button. His doctors arrived and placed oxygen on him; all the time, he kept his eyes fixed on me. I tried to leave, and I caused him to try to stand up from the chair. He took off his mask to continue scolding me.

“It's your fault; she was a good woman and very pretty. Besides fulfilling what was agreed between families, you embarrass me a lot.”

I felt bad, and I also let myself cry and sob. I answered him,

“Grandfather, it is that you chose for me; that family took advantage of you; they wanted our fortune; I believe that they forged that plot to save your life.”

He was furious, shaking his fists and shouting at me at the same time that the devices connected to him beeped in alarm, and the doctors looked at me badly.

“They saved my life, and to pay my debt of gratitude, you had to marry their daughter to unite the families—nothing that was not done before in our family. I married your grandmother, looking at her face for the first time in the church when the veil was uncovered for the wedding. She was very beautiful, and if she had not been beautiful, I would have married her anyway. I had to answer for the honor of the family.”

I remember well that I answered her frankly.

“Well, that's why I got married—to fulfill the agreement and to have family honor at the top.”

He kept shouting at me, groping,

“You didn't get married, what you did was set up a circus full of humiliations where she, instead of being your wife, was the clown that everyone made fun of. That poor girl had to endure loneliness and many scorns. She was the lonely bride, the invisible man's wife, and worse atrocities were said to her because of you.”

He was very hurt, and although it was helping him to unburden himself, his machines squealed a little. I cried like a child clutching my face, and I unburdened my heart and told him the truth.

“I did not want my wife to live a life full of fear and insecurity as my mother did, it was very hard for me to think about what happened to her and my father, and I do not want that to happen again.”

My grandfather hugged me, and we both cried, the same way we did at the burial of my parents. At the end, I went home after receiving his blessing, and I arrived at the villa, where you had everything ready for the operation against Max.”

“Yes, Angelo, I remember that. We ambushed them, we killed everyone, Max begged us for his life, and you spared him.”

“Luis, it was a difficult decision, except that my grandfather also told me about Max's origin, and that prevented me from killing him. It's complicated.”

“I understand you; I am your most trusted employee; I know most of the family secrets.”

“Luis, you are not an employee; you are part of the family, you have been like a father to me.”

“I don't think so, Angelo. You make me blush. A father wouldn't do what I did to you.”

“And what did you do to me?”

“My dear Angelo, while we were talking, I called...”

“Who? Luis, tell me.”

“To the best pre-paid girl in this country, she'll give you back your hope.”

The doorbell rang, and it was her. She was on TV every time, she was the sensation, she spoke openly about her sexuality to Angelo without talking too much and to stop interrupting Luis with his three affairs, he took her straight to his room, where she said to him,

“Daddy, how nice.”

But he was not motivated; he did not feel in tune; he avoided her kisses; he tried to recover and take advantage of this famous escort. It occurred to him to imagine Ximena's face, and it was working until it turned into his wife's, his libido reached that point; he pushed her aside, and again, he cried like a child.