CHAPTER 4

Sitting in the swivel chair at her desk, watching the sunrise from where she was, Valeria couldn't stop smiling. Only five minutes.

Just then her cell phone rang.

“Yes?”

“Mrs. Valladolid, your daughter-in-law has already entered one of the company's rooms,” said Tomas on the other end of the line. “The explosives have been placed.”

“Activate them.” And she hung up.

Only five minutes and the room not far from the company was going to be blown to pieces.

Tomas smiled as soon as he was given the authority to blow up the place, from no more than twenty meters away he could already see all the people celebrating with Erika with the help of his binoculars. They all looked very happy.

“I'm very sorry, miss, but orders are orders.”

And without further ado, he lowered the binoculars and from his pants pocket he took out the control, activating the explosives. The explosives had only two minutes marked on them.

And in the living room a young woman smiling with all the men to whom he had promised changes. In the company Valeria laughing at what was about to happen, Zein with the follow-up of the wine export while Antonio cried at Elena's grave. Parallel worlds.

And all of a sudden, only the explosives were heard as they finished with everything. The fire consuming everything, screams, delirium, laughter in another world but in the one where the explosion had taken place it was nothing but pain and death.

Valeria could not help smiling when she saw the billows of smoke that, as she herself had said not long ago, covered the bright rays of sunlight.

By that time Erika must have been dead.

At the place where the explosion had taken place, bells ringing, warning of the fire, patrols arriving, desperate people, screams and more screams. An injustice had just happened at that moment.

Little by little the place was surrounded by the police, people screamed and looked for their relatives with their eyes, the firemen arrived and put out the fire. Everything seemed to have been reduced to ashes, many people must have died in that place where they were celebrating.

Soon a black truck arrived.

“What happened?” Valeria said as if none of this had been caused by her.

“Ma'am, ma'am, there was an explosion, Miss Valladolid was inside.”

“What are you waiting for? Get as many people out as you can!”

Valeria's way of acting could easily make the world believe that she was nothing more than a victim and a woman who cared about what had just happened.

She was running around pretending that it was hurting her.

“What happened! I need answers! Call my children!”

There was no need to call them because just as the explosion happened they were called because they were the owners of the whole town and the first ones who should have been there.

“Who did this?” Valeria shouted, pretending her role very well.

“My lady,” came Tomas.

“Tell me what happened, Tomas!” The fakest tears fell from her eyes.

“I don't know, my lady, I don't know, but we are going to get the people out, you don't worry.”

“Mother!” Someone shouted.

In front of her stood her son Zein.

“Son, son.”

“What happened, mother? Is it true that my wife is in there?”

“Yes, yes, son, but they are already doing everything to get her out, please wait here.”

“How can I wait here?!” He shouted as he entered the place.

“Son, no!”

Not caring about his mother's words and mocking the police he entered where everything was ashes. And it was until that moment when she really feared, her son had just entered like a brave man just to save the woman who should already be reduced to ashes.

“Son!” Valeria shouted with all her strength.

Tomas stopped her, now the tears were real, she was afraid for his son.

Inside, despite the smoke and all that made it difficult to see Zein, he entered among all that was falling due to the fire. His screams could be heard all over the place, firemen and policemen still wanted to stop him but Zein seemed to be owner of a superhuman strength that was nothing more than adrenaline because of the fear he felt at the thought of Erika dying in any corner of that place.

“Sir, we have to get out of here, please!”

“Erika, Erika, where are you?!”

“Sir, don't make this any harder!”

“We found Miss Valladolid!” They shouted from the entrance Zein had used.

His heart was beating again, now he felt he could breathe and all he could do at that moment was to go back and think only of the moment when he would see his wife.

Outside Valeria was crying as Tomas held it. His son could die if the explosives had not gone off completely.

“Get my son out of there!”

“We found Miss Valladolid!” Valeria's ears heard.

The tears dried on her cheeks, the expression on her face changed, the strength in her body was lost. That could not be true, Erika could not be alive, it had to be a mistake.

“Erika!” She heard her son's voice.

And it was at that moment that at the same time that Valeria's eyes saw her son approaching she found a man carrying Erika in his arms, that man was her other son. Antonio.

“Erika, Erika!” shouted the brothers at the same time as soon as Antonio put her on the floor.

She was asleep, or so it seemed, on her right arm she had a huge burn but not beyond that. She seemed to be breathing even so, without thinking, Antonio gave her mouth to mouth resuscitation being watched by Zein. That treatment seemed to be very special.

And it was until that moment that Erika came back to life.

To say that Valeria was surprised was an understatement. It was the same impression that made her fall to her knees as Tomas at her side held her right arm. Valeria would have expected anything but that. Her plan had failed.

Tomas, seeing the same thing his madam had seen, could only think of approaching her slowly and talking to her. That was not part of the plan.

“My lady, the woman is alive, what are we going to do?”

Valeria didn't think it was part of the plan. She couldn't handle the feeling of disappointment. She had failed in the worst way.

“Why didn't you make sure she was in the room? Why?!”

“I'm sorry, madam, but the truth is that...”

“A worse fate awaits her,” Valeria cut her words short. “She decided to live, it was her worst mistake. Get in touch with the judge, tell him that the culprit of everything is alive.”

And suddenly, as if it was a breath of life that someone had breathed into her so that she could finally open her eyes, Erika seemed to wake up from a dream, a nightmare.

By her side had always been Zein, the same Zein who could not believe that she was actually opening her eyes in front of him.

“Erika? Erika, Erika!” Named Zein when he realized that she had really just opened her eyes, turning to her so that he could move her body and let her know that he was there, next to her.

“Zein!” she called out, taking his arm. The nightmare was over.

Everything around her was nothing but white walls, next to her was the serum, the same one that hurt her the moment she moved her arm more than she would have intended.

“It's all right, Erika, it's all right, it's all right!”

Tears began to flow from her eyes. She couldn't even concentrate on the reality she had just stepped into. It all seemed to be part of a nightmare because all she remembered at that moment was that black smoke that reached her while she was in the second room.

“Zein, Zein, it wasn't my fault, it wasn't my fault, it wasn't my fault! I swear, I swear!” she began to say as if she was about to lose her mind.

Zein grabbed her by both arms as he made her look him in the eyes. By that time, he himself was frightened by the way she was acting.

“Zein, I swear I didn't mean to, I swear I didn't do it!”

And the more she talked, the more she clung to the fact that she had not been guilty, in Zein's mind was the idea that his mother, Mrs. Valladolid was right. Erika had been the person who had caused the accident.

Suddenly the door of the room where she was opened. It was the doctors.

“Step aside, sir, step aside,” they demanded while one of the doctors took Erika and another one injected her with a tranquilizer.

In front of Zein's two they watched as they took it upon themselves to tie her hands and feet to the same bed, she was losing her mind from one moment to the next. Tears and pain came to Zein's heart at seeing his wife like that.

“Please, let me go, let me go, let me go right now, I didn't do anything, I didn't do anything, I swear it wasn't my fault, I... I... I... I don't know what happened!”

Zein could no longer bear what his eyes were seeing, he left that place leaving Erika screaming.

“Zein, Zein, don't go, it wasn't my fault, I don't know what happened!”

The policemen guarding the entrance of that room only watched Zein leave. Yes, Erika was already in jail from the moment they knew she was alive, there was no way she was going to save herself. She was the only suspect in the accident she had caused.

Tears could not stop Zein from falling. His wife, the woman he loved the most, now there was nothing left of her.