CHAPTER 6

VALLADOLID HOSPITAL PSYCHIATRIC 

“Move your ass, damn it!” Said out loud the woman beside Erika, who was pulling her by her arm. 

Erika, as she had been on drugs for so long, all she could do was just cry and cry while the dim lights of that neglected hospital appeared in front of her, forcing her eyes to see ahead but being the pain in the same ones that made her want to look away. Somebody with really bad intentions and a black hole instead of a heart had played really well their cards against her. It was a fact that he or she had won the battle, whoever it was making Erika feel so away from her own body, like this one didn’t belong to her anymore. Not even talk about her mind. Her mind had just simply disconnected itself from her body and her reality, but her heart had not yet. Her heart was aware of what someone had done to them. It was just that Erika was so away from her emotions, feelings and logic to hear her heart speak louder. 

“I’m telling you to fucking rush! I don’t have all the damn time, asshole!” The nurse continued, pulling her. 

Faster they made her walk, they didn’t care if they had to drag her, the nurses were already wasting so much time with her. All what Erika could see around her was people who had lost their minds, some of them were hitting themselves against the walls, others kept walking with no destination, others were pulling their hair, others were crying, or laughing so loud that scared any one who passed by… Such a sad way of living!

Walking through the neglected hallways color gray, finally they arrived at the room that was going to be hers for the rest of her days. Maybe she wasn’t going to bear so much.

“Move your fucking ass, asshole!” The nurse said, and then she was thrown into the room where the doctor who was going to take care of her was waiting for her. Now that she was in her hands, that woman was going to make her life a living hell, as madam Valladolid had asked her to do. 

Due to the strength she was thrown with, Erika fell hard on the floor of her room, she still thought about the little creature in her belly. The tears fell down. She couldn’t believe how her life had changed in a blink of an eye. She was the woman of Zein Valladolid, she was part of the most powerful family in that town, how come her life could change like that? She couldn’t accept being there after the woman she was.  

Her mind was assaulted by the moment that was supposed to be one of the most beautiful ones in her life, and the life of some women. 

She had just woken up in that hospital bed, her body felt so weak, however, she wanted to find the doctor, her family, or anyone who could tell her the reason why she was in that place. 

Feeling like her body was about to give up on her, she was trying hard to get up until she did it. In her mind just the idea to find her husband was what kept her on her feet. She came out of her room and there she was, her mother-in-law, talking to the doctor. 

“Are you sure of what you told me? Are sure that the baby in my daughter-in-law’s belly is okay?” 

“Yes, Mrs. Valladolid, I’m sure that the baby that your daughter-in-law is expecting is completely healthy. If everything goes like this the baby is going to be born healthy. In spite of what happened.  

Erika couldn’t help but lead one of her hands to her abdomen while with the other she covered her mouth, not letting a single scream to get out of her insides. By that time she couldn’t be happy, she had so much in her mind going on that it was difficult for her to think about a baby at that moment. 

On the floor of that room that smelled so gross and that was so cold that could freeze her body, Erika stayed there crying while her hands clung to the little baby in her insides. Her hell had just started. It was going to be tough to get out of there. 

****

A WEEK LATER 

With a glass of wine in her hand, one leg over the other while her mind was playing over and over what she had done, Valeria was waiting for her trustman to come.

“What about now, dear Erika? Now you’ll pay for your mistake. You wanted to become the next madam of this damn town, I swear you’ll rot there. How does it feel now, Erika?”

Suddenly, Tomas appeared in front. 

“Madam, did you send for me?”

“Of course I sent for you, Tomas. Please, take a seat.”

“How can I help you now?”

“Do you know something about the process of my dear daughter-in-law? My son wants to see her, but you know that he can’t see her as the Erika she used to be. Instead, my son has to see a crazy person in her place. You know, it’s a little lesson for him. He shouldn’t have ever done that.”   

“I’ll take care of it, my lady.”

“Be careful with the drugs they’re supplying to her. I don’t want my grandson to be affected by the drugs, he’s going to be the one who will help me to take care of the fortune of his mother,” they laughed. “That baby has to be born healthy. I don’t need a stupid child just because you weren’t careful with the drugs.”

“Don’t worry, my lady. I’ll take care of it.” Tomas said again. 

“Not only that, do you already have what I asked you a couple of days ago?”

“Yes, my lady. We’re expecting the father of your dear daughter-in-law to appear any second to claim his daughter innocent.”

“Do you have a plan?”

“Of course, my lady. I have a plan of how he’s going directly to hell, where your daughter-in-law is going too sooner or later.”

And without further ado, Valeria and Tomas laughed after she drank from her glass of wine. 

*****

Sunlight that burned the wounds of her soul since the moment she was locked up in that horrendous place, the walls painted of many colors, people who walked back and forth as they hit their heads or pulled their hair, and all of them dressed in the same blue pants. 

She was sitting in one of the corners of the yard, Erika was more dead than alive. A week had barely gone and she was already wishing death to come for her, even though she was determined to fight for her baby. If only she knew that her luck was about to change beside the person who had been watching her from afar. Marcos Montiel. A hope had come to him three days ago when he heard some nurses talking about the new patient, who was also pregnant and they were asked to drive her crazy little by little with the drugs and other techniques, as they also wanted to do with him.

Walking up to her as he had lost his mind, wanting to go unnoticed, he approached the corner of the yars where Erika was with her eyes lost into the nothingness. 

He didn’t want to scare her, so slowly he sat down by her side. She didn’t even show any kind of interest towards the person by her side. 

“What’s your name?” Marcos asked. 

She didn’t answer. 

“Who brought you here? I mean, who sent you? Who wants to hurt you so bad to be here? Don’t even try to lie to me, I know you’re not crazy at all. Good! So, That makes two of us. They had locked us up here unfairly.” 

Erika didn’t answer again.

“I also know that you’re pregnant. Tell me, your secret is safe with me, who wants to keep you here?”

Finally, those words made Erika turn and look at the man beside her. She was gaining her senses again.

“Yes, yes! I’m talking to you!” The man almost celebrated when he noticed her attention was his.

Suddenly, two nurses approached them. Marco remained silent, faking his madness. The nurses took Erika with them abruptly and got her up from the ground to take her wherever they only knew.

“Let’s go! The doctor wants you in the special room, she’s going to have some visits and she’ll inject her with the drug to make her look like a lunatic.” The nurse said to the other.  

Those words woke Marco’s senses up. 

“Who is coming?” The nurse asked. 

“I don’t know, someone like Zein Valladolid, I don’t know.”

The air was no longer enough for Marcos, who had heard that name. That woman the nurses had taken with them was part of the Valladolid family. That couldn’t be possible! That woman couldn’t be part of them!

HACIENDA VALLADOLID

“I know it. It’s a shame that my daughter-in-law has to be in that horrendous place. I swear to God that I never imagined her to be capable of doing such a thing.” Valeria said in hypocrit manner. 

In front of her it was the father of Erika, who couldn’t help crying his pain out. He couldn’t believe that his daughter had lost her mind.

“I just can’t believe it! I refuse to believe it, I refuse to believe that my daughter has lost her mind.”

“Your daughter killed 15 people in that explosion that she planned very well. Meticulously!” 

“That’s a damn lie! My daughter wouldn’t be able to do such a thing!”

“Why don’t you find it out for yourself.”

“That’s what I’m going to do, and I’ll prove there’s something wrong here!” In that way, Mr. Beltran got out of the Hacienda in a rush.

Valeria made a signal to Tomas to proceed with the plan. The last of Mr. Beltran’s days had come. 

“I’ll get back soon, my lady.” Tomas whispered, showing her the gun he was going to use to kill the man. 

From the stairs, the heavy footsteps of Zein were heard. He was sick of that situation that didn’t give any peace to the soul. 

“Mother! Mother!” Zein cried out.

Valeria faked it. “My son, what are you doing here?” 

Her son couldn’t know that his father-in-law was there.

“Right now I’m demanding you to tell the doctor of the hospital where my wife is that allows me the entrance! I want to see my wife! I refuse to believe she lost her mind!”

“Why don’t you go there and see that I’m not lying to you!”

“Yes, of course! That’s what I’m doing! But I can’t see my wife if you don’t tell the doctor to allow me to see her! Damn it!”

*****

In a room of four white walls covered with sponges, wearing a straitjacket, Erika didn’t feel her body being hers. She felt like her senses had abandoned her being inexplicably. The damn doctor had injected her with something that was making her feel so weak when she needed to be strong the most.   

“Get me out of here! Get me out of here!” She screamed. 

The door of the white room opened. Her screams faded away as soon as her little eyes saw the presence of the person who hurt her the most. A memory came to her. 

The judge, who stared at the person who was declaring by his side, Erika with her hands cuffed and the lawyer that she did not know but Erika’s mother-in-law had paid.  Her only hope was her husband, he had to say that she was innocent and she hadn’t provoked any harm at all because she wasn’t capable of that.

“Is that true, Mr. Valladolid, that you saw how your wife was looking for the room plans where her celebration with her workers was going to take place?”

Zein looked at his wife. She was crying in silence. “Yes, your honor. I saw my wife looking for the room plans, it's just that… I don't know why she was doing that. I just gave her all the information she asked for.” 

“So, do you think your wife is guilty?” 

Zein looked at Erika, who shook her head. Her tears ran down. 

“I don’t know, you honor. I don’t know, but even if it was like that, I don’t think that she meant to do it.”

“Is she guilty or not?”

“I did not nothing wrong!” Erika raised her voice. 

“Stay calm, please!”

“Yes… I think that.. she is guilty.” And Zein murmured, lowering his head.

In front of Erika she had her husband. Even if she looked like a crazy person, the truth was that in her mind she still had that moment where her husband accused her.

“Erika?” He asked. 

Hatred bubbled in her insides. 

*****

Searching in every single of the rooms, Marcos finally could see that one that was being escorted by two police men and the same doctor. From the hallway he could see a man dressed in a suit. He had finally found him. Just one thing was missing: he had to make sure that the people who recast Erika there were the same ones who hurt him too.

Slowly, without being noticed from afar, he came closer. He just wanted to see if that man with Erika was part of the Valladolid family.  

Just the screams of Erika could be heard there. 

“Get out of here! Get the hell out of here! Zein, I don’t want to see you ever again! I hate you! Get out of here!”

Marco had undoubtedly found the Valladolid family. Hate poisoned him, giving him a supernatural strength to be able to get in despite the two policemen who grabbed him, but Marco released himself from them successfully.  

In a fast movement Marco took Zein by behind and pushed him against the wall, letting him see the hatred he felt for all of his kind. 

“Who are you, damn crazy?”

“Remember me, remember my face well because this is the face you’ll see when you’re paying for all the things your damn mother did to me and my family. You  all will pay for that!”

Zein couldn’t do anything else aside from looking into his dark eyes. In front of them it was Erika with the straitjacket that didn’t allow her any movement. She couldn’t understand anything of what was happening there. It was like her husband and the other one who had talked to her at the yard knew pretty well. At least, the crazy one knew her husband really well.  

A revenge was about to knock on the door of the Valladolid family. The Hacienda of the Valladolid family was going to fall apart right into the same hell. And Erika and Marco were going to start that living hell for the Valladolid family by a contract. A contract with the enemy’s wife.