CHAPTER 04

Unfortunate past, unfortunate life that the deceased lived before tragic death, why did pain seem to be made for those who were the best? Why did the world cling to changing innocent people?

Mysteries of life, secrets of it and lies in which we live.

Morning of the next day in which a man had stopped being a man simply by having declared himself unfaithful to a woman who had given him everything, everything that was in her heart.

Without having worried about anything, without even bothering to know what had happened to her that rainy night, the house phone began to ring. Alexander had fallen asleep in the living room chair, completely forgetting about his wife.

Alexander began rubbing his eyes and then, being aware of the new reality, took the phone at his side. He hadn't even bothered to think about his wife.

"This is Alexander Vital, how can I help you?" He asked, rubbing his eyes.

"Mr. Vital, good morning.”

"What can I do for you?”

"Mr. Vital, I am very sorry for the news that I have to tell you but, unfortunately, we have just found your wife's car in a ravine near km 31. Mr. Vital, I am very sorry but your wife has died.”

Those words from that man made Alexander  stand up suddenly. That couldn't be true. Paula Garza couldn't be dead. How? At what time did it happen? How did he not notice? At what point did he let her go?

The phone fell from Alexander 's hands in disbelief.

******** 

Seven o'clock in the morning, Emma was already putting on the diamond earrings that she had taken from her sister, the ugly duckling, as she called her. Suddenly, the home phone rang.

There was no one to answer for her.

"Ash, I have to do everything!” She shouted just before answering. “Yes?”

And from the stairs, a woman who came down with such elegance, the same one who had a huge smile on her face just by seeing her daughter ready to go to the modeling company.

Suddenly, the woman's smile and steps froze as soon as she saw the way the phone fell from her daughter's hands as if she were surprised, as if she couldn't believe what she had just heard.

"Daughter, what's wrong?" Mom called, coming down quickly.

Emma was completely pale. She shook her head as if she were completely crazy.

"What's wrong, Emma? What did they tell you?!”

"Mom, mom, I can't believe it... Mom, Paula, Paula, Paula died.”

“What?”

******* 

Countless rags next to an almost inert body, the bandages would not be enough to cover the fresh, pink skin that was reborn after the cuts, the hot water tub was already stained red enough to seem like it had just been the blood extracted from a body.

Desperately, wiping the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand, Maximilian did everything so that life would not pass away from the woman who was on that cold stretcher where he had almost no material to care for her as he should.

"Here I brought more warm water," said old Manuel. "I also brought more towels.”

"Manuel, you'll have to go to the nearest pharmacy and buy a lot of bandages, she can't die.”

"Son, I don't know why you brought her here. Don't you realize how dangerous this can be? We are going to report it to the police, surely her family must be looking for her.” Old Manuel insisted.

"No, no, I already told you Manuel, no, no one will know that she is here with me!”

"This can be very dangerous. “

"Those were her last words, she did not want me to take her to any hospital and if that was my patient's wish, I will respect it.”

"You can't call her your patient when you have no way to care for her.”

"Please, Manuel, just do what I told you to do. Now before she dies!”

Manuel ran out of that small house that they had made theirs since the moment Maximilian's mother died and in the same one where he had set up an office to do the most complicated cosmetic surgeries and with so much professionalism with the difference that the pay was too low since he did not have a title to support his work after his life had been taken from him.

When he found that woman on his way and knowing that she was almost dying, his only thought was to save her life. More than nine hours had passed and there was no improvement. He didn't want her to die there but he also couldn't turn her over to the police after she had told him not to.

"You're not going to die, I swear, you're going to live.”

All Maximilian's eyes could see were bandages and bandages on her face as her face was completely disfigured due to the glass that broke on her face. She was bleeding to death.

Suddenly, the hand that was cleaning Paula's cuts so desperately was grabbed by Paula's hand. Paula had just woken up.

Maximilian's eyes widened in surprise. It was as if she was clinging to life, as if she refused to die.

"Please... please... please, no... no, don't let me die, no... I-I don't want to d-die. Please.”

Between the bandages that covered that woman's face, Maximilian could clearly see that she was letting a couple of tears fall. What could that have been that forced her to live at the same time that it made her die in life?

******** 

The place had already been fenced with yellow tape that did not allow curious people to enter; there were hundreds of police officers. There was nothing to do when they had already found the body of Mr. Vital's wife.

Two black cars stopped behind the patrol cars. The time to pretend had arrived for many.

Alexander came down immediately.

"Where is my wife? I need to see her!”

Behind him came Emma, ​​who couldn't believe how all that could have happened.

"Alexander!” Emma shouted.

And behind the two of them, the same elegant woman who couldn't help but smile. Her stepdaughter had died in a fatal accident. She was already dead and that would not be a problem for anyone, much less for her daughter Emma since she, Gertrudis, always wanted her daughter to be Mrs. Vital and not the ugly duckling of the family

Now all she had to do was pretend. Pretend like she had done all her life. It was only a matter of time before Alexander noticed Emma.

"How did it happen?” Alexander asked the prosecutor who was in charge of everything.

"We found her body six meters from where the car fell. Everything seems to have flown away, her face is completely unrecognizable, many pieces of glass were buried in her neck, which caused the slow and painful death of Mrs. Vital. I am very sorry, at this moment the autopsy process is already beginning.”

Alexander couldn't help but feel bad about everything that man was telling him. Because of him she had died, because of him she only found death.

"No, don't do it!” Alexander raised his voice.

“What?”

"I don't want them to open my wife's body.”

"Mr. Vital, we are very sorry but in a death like this it is strictly necessary that an autopsy be performed.”

"I said they are not going to open my wife's body because she was the one who always wanted it that way!”

The prosecutor only knew how to look at Alexander. If it was the will of the person who had just left, they couldn't do anything else.

"Look for evidence elsewhere but never in my wife's body. Not on my wife.”

Emma, ​​seeing the way Alexander was acting, only knew how to be by his side, to be his tearjerker because she already knew that if she wanted to get something from him, she had to sacrifice a little.

Emma smiled without anyone seeing her, in the same way that Gertrudis did. Finally that bastard was dead, in the end no one was going to know who she really was. Because anyone who was thinking that she was Emma's sister was very wrong. That ugly duckling had no longer been the pick of that family.

And one day later, in that way, without guilt and without pain, without love, without any feeling, they were burying Paula Garza and Vital.