She just needed to get away from him, at least away, away for a while, and she didn't realize the magnitude of that decision until her eyes collided with the Christmas decorations, the snow, and the bustle of people making life on the streets of London.She walked, needed to.Bundling up tightly, adjusting the thick scarf around her neck, and covering her head with the hood of her coat, Carla walked around the hotel and beyond, her eyes on everything, her mind elsewhere, and her heart trying to arm herself to survive.Sadness gripped, but her tears were already shed. Anger argued with the former feeling to rule her heart. Life was simple until her famous father passed away; she never thought she had longed for him to live. Fred Davison was not a man enlisted in her mind, she never remembered him, not even to hate him. Between living across the ocean, her job, the gym, keeping her house warm, paying the bills, and saving to someday take out the housing plan she had dreamed of, her Mr.
The days passed slowly for Maximiliano and extremely slowly for Carla.Max tried to get his wife to leave the room. He would involve her in topics of interest concerning her late father's company, showing her plans and important data, as well as communicating his ideas about the new season for the consortium based on the Protocol area. The only thing the CEO got out of her was that she complained about being in charge of the department. Carla threatened to call Bobby Clarence to tell him the truth about what was going on.Very upset at being subjected to such blackmail, Max reminded her that the management position she would not hold, that it was just a well-articulated lie for the press. Carla then shared with him data that was mentioned in group chats created by coworkers and mentioned that they congratulated her on the new job.The CEO was aware of the existence of those chat groups but didn't tell her. What she was able to do was to come up with a plan for herself to announce to e
Max smiled, scrubbing his eyelids again, and then said goodbye, hanging up the call.He looked at the time on his wristwatch: 20:00 hours. He'd agreed to call George and Lenis, his mother and Peter as well, to congratulate them, maybe make a video call with them, but he'd still let them enjoy themselves; it was early there, and besides, he didn't feel like feeling sorry for himself.He downed the contents of the glass in one gulp and set it down on the wall ledge that enclosed the air-conditioned place, which, besides being gigantic and very modern, full of top quality furnishings and current designs all gray, light blue, black, and white, was surrounded by walls half wall, half glass, with giant square panels that gave the sensation of being outdoors, counting the roof of pergola, iron and glass that allowed to see the sun in the middle of the day, the falling snow, the rain and the stars, being hail and humidity proof.The elevator came to a full stop and opened its doors. Maximili
In a London restaurant not far from the hotel, a thin guy, about 35 years old, with many lines, a wild look, and gray in his abundant hair, although well cut, was sharing a very colorful and hot drink with a woman who seemed to be quite young, much younger than him, who wore black hair with red and purple locks.The music was raucous, a mixture of rock and electronic, and Christmas decorations were placed everywhere. Taking advantage of the warmth of the place, wearing a red and green checkered shirt, beige dress pants, and earth-colored shoes, good brand, very expensive, the party man, who was waiting (like everyone else) for the end of the year, noticed how his cell phone turned on its screen and vibrated on the table.He picked it up and read the text carefully. The information was a bit long, but a good summary of what he asked his friend, the waiter, to send him.He apologized to the colorful-haired girl by leaving a kiss on her cheek and got up, heading for a quieter place where
"Will you kiss me whenever you want?" asked a heated Carla touching her lips, lips that still hurt from Maximiliano's fierce outburst."Couples kiss, Carla, do you want me to remind you that I'm your husband?"Paralyzed for two seconds, she burst out laughing."This is crazy." She was still laughing, more and more amazed at how things were going, placing her gaze on no specific place, touching her face, shaking her head."In a few hours, this year will be over. Are we going to celebrate by arguing?""That's not my fault," she said."All right, it's all mine." He raised his palms in surrender. "Still, it's not worth it to be like this all the time. It's tiring and annoying. Besides," he put his hands in his pockets and smiled, "I can think of more ways to celebrate this important date."Carla raised her eyebrows, again stunned by what she had just heard."I remind you that this is not a day to celebrate, Maximiliano.""I know," he said softly and sincerely. He straightened up, erasing
Max opened his eyes, finding it hard to focus.His phone was vibrating, placed on a nightstand, and the buzzing annoyed him.He considered that he'd had too much to drink last night, but at the same time, he knew he could have had a lot more. If the circumstances had been otherwise, he wouldn't be alone in that bed.He reached for his cell phone and spotted the date and time: January 1, 11:15 a.m. His eyes fell on the date and time. Then, his gaze was fixed on the center of the screen, several notifications were concentrated there.Max opened the notification box; Peter wrote: "We must talk. Wake up!" He didn't open the message; he could skim-read it, and that was just one of the many texts sent by him; he discarded the rest.B.J. warned in another box, "Sir, we're listening to what you tell us." It was that caught his attention. Max frowned and rubbed his hand over his face, waking up.Also, he found a message from Carla and that was the one he preferred to open. It had a link attach
"Sir?" B.J. got up from his seat when he saw his boss coming out of the main bedroom, the same one where Carla Davison de Bastidas was staying. "B.J., Carla asked to do this alone. She doesn't want anyone to interrupt her, and I couldn't convince her otherwise. I'll take care of this; maybe you can keep watch downstairs." "Sir, a group of reporters has landed at the entrance of the hotel." "Fuck." He sighed and rubbed her eyelids with renewed exhaustion. "What did you have in mind?" "To leave in the wee hours. We've already coordinated with hotel security to collaborate and guard all the exits, including the emergency exit, access to the kitchen, laundry, and fire escape." "All right, good job. Thank you for keeping me informed. Write to me. This will be quick, but then..." Max grimaced with resignation and regret. The guard nodded, understanding very well what his boss was talking about. "Don't worry, sir, I manage it." Max nodded and turned to look at the suite door. He want
The finished dial tone almost pierced Daniel's eardrums, who, amid his rage, perceived the sound as if it were emitted at a very high volume. He held back, held back as long as he could, staring at the cell phone, imagining exploding it with a squeeze of his hand. The screen was returning to normal, showing her cousin's number with the notification the chat app usually leaves and its call section. Exhaling for the third time, wrinkling his face from his stomach ache, serious, he placed the cell phone on the low table delicately, as if he didn't want the simple touch to make the slightest noise. He looked straight ahead. A series of images began to project around him, starting from the front, like a slideshow turned video, like an infinite reel of all the things that were going to happen to him the moment Maximilian and his people realized that the journalist was related to him. He knew Peter Embert would dig deep; he would start to break it down; distrust of everyone was ingrained
Arriving at the mountains, Daniel's pick-up entered the second village, a very picturesque place that welcomed him with the decoration of the local fair, and quiet people walking here and there.From rock they went to pop, then to ballads... several songs played on the vehicle's stereo helped them to cheer up, especially the guards. Glint wanted them to feel that this was not a job, but an adventure, an outing with friends. Daniel loved empathy, he thought that this word and its precise action saved his nights and days of boredom and idleness. Sometimes, he felt people inside his hands; it was not something too pleasant when it happened all the time, but in the moments he needed it most, perfection was something that always worked for him."Turn on the GPS," Daniel commanded to the driver, who obeyed, lowering the volume of the music to open the app that would help them get to the inn.There were still a few meters to go, as the reservation was located at the end of the village. At th
She sighed; at least she got what she wanted, for him to walk away to change clothes.One of the things Max assureds her once during those long conversations on the bed, was the lack of cameras on that side of the building, functioning as an intimate area where people could be naked if they wanted, people she never saw, but Max only indicated the two of them could undress there if they wanted to; he did it constantly, didn't care because he knew very well that there were no cameras. For that reason, Carla used to always make sure she was not accompanied, to go with her bathing suit on, however, because of the recent circumstances, she went down without anything prepared and had to undress there, so she took off the gray panties with unusual details in its confection and armhole sleeve, staying in her underwear, a tight white bikini tailored, which she then took off without looking away from the gym.Carla put on the full white swimsuit, gathered her black hair in an onion-style ponyta
Daniel gave precise instructions to everyone. Leaving the original bar in charge to his assistant, he decided it was time to withdraw for a moment from all the pressure, even from the networks, promising to turn off his cell phone by the time he reached his destination.His driver was already waiting for him in one of the pick-ups destined for his trip; two guards from the new team he recently hired, all dressed in civilian clothes, were standing by, one at the door of his apartment, the other in the lobby of the building.After paying a good amount of money to each of them, especially to the heads of the yellow and pink media who were after him, he remembered the words of his lawyer, who repeated on several occasions how beneficial it was for him that the police had Hilary's sister, who was the only troublemaker who could disrupt everything with her denunciations a vox póluli, in custody and isolated.Daniel was in a hurry. Several days before that September 15, he found out who the
Carla didn't let anyone open the door for her and when the youngest bodyguard wanted to help, Maximiliano signaled him not to intervene, to leave her alone.She went up the elevator alone, Max had to resort to another one to get to the floor. She entered the apartment alone and slammed the door a few seconds before it arrived, without missing anything, neither noises nor stomping much less the enormous female annoyance.Max walked in and closed the door, wanting very much to slam it too, but restrained himself. His phone was ringing, but he didn't pay attention, didn't even take it out of his pants pocket. As soon as he took off his jacket, he threw the keys to the apartment into the glass bowl and continued walking with energetic steps in search of his wife, wherever she was.He found the door to Carla's room open, the handbag on the bed, the golden sandals on the floor, scattered as if nothing, messy. He heard water but not much. He knocked on the door."Carla, let me in."She didn'
Carla tilted her head to one side, throwing it back slightly with a smile full of doubt."What?""I imagine your husband wouldn't have wanted to bother you with such a tidbit of information, and I apologize for being the unwise one to blurt it out, but I think you should know all about it. Brandon Hial is the nephew of your father's wife, Carla. That's a reality that he knew all along."Carla didn't speak for a couple of seconds."What?"Yul exhaled quite a lot of air, stirring in the armchair. Age and so much work added to her back a perennial pain that always made her move every time she sat down."It's a fact of life, girl, sorry again to tell you. Brandon was sought out by his aunt when she found out who his girlfriend was. They didn't have any kind of closeness, but he always knew who his aunt was, of course, you wouldn't think the reporter found out about her roots late." She laughed a little at that. "What he didn't know was you, his girlfriend, were the daughter of Fred Daviso
Already upstairs, and after crossing the threshold of the hall, the couple was greeted by each member of the board directors, except, of course, the head of the press office, since there was still a vacancy to be filled after what happened with Brandon, he was expelled from the payroll.Everyone surrounded the big table. When they saw the majority shareholders arrive, they rose courteously to greet them. "Please, come in," Romina D'Marc greeted, head of publicity, who was currently in charge of filling the gap left by the journalist after what happened at the museum."Mr. Bastidas," Mr. Francisco Billabond greeted, shaking hands with both the newcomer and his wife, "let me express my most sincere congratulations on your day, on behalf of the entire team," the head of the public relations department of Davison & Associates continued. "Please take your seats."Maximiliano looked around, analyzing everyone's body language, as well as an inspection of the place in question, realizing tha
One of the things he most admired about Carla, and what Max liked the most, was that she didn't wear the clothes that he ordered to put in her closet, expensive clothes he ordered to buy, clothes he offered her as a gift. She always left everything put away, Carla didn't touch the pants, dresses, or shoes, and Max knew that the word pride didn't fit, she wasn't proud, Carla simply didn't see the need to wear anything else if she already had her closet, one that she could bring from The City and that, to his surprise, worked perfectly, everything suited her very well and looked exquisite because Carla always (proving it to him every day) had good taste.Max began to corroborate this again when he saw his wife almost parading out of the hallway of rooms in the apartment they shared wearing a sublime outfit that made her look extremely elegant and even much more so than any party dress he could have bought for her. A gray-blue panty with vertical timbered reliefs that were only noticeab
Pissed off, very upset, almost scared. Peter couldn't believe that one of the most dangerous criminals that The City had ever had the misfortune to meet was still harming, regardless of being in prison. He didn't want to say anything to anyone yet, despite the need to keep Max and George informed. He wanted to corroborate his suspicions by finding out much more about this Oswaldo Hurtado, who seemed like a ghost.In about two weeks, Oswaldo took him through a line of inquiry he didn't want to revisit, points in the capital, and contacts he had left behind.When Lenis Evans, the secretary of his friend Maximiliano, came into their lives, Peter realized that Evans' name must be false, and little by little, the very vicissitudes of destiny, a destiny that would keep them together forever, made them understand that it was indeed so. Her name was not Lenis Evans, but Lisa Diaz; she was married to the advisor of the ex-governor Jefferson Smith, currently imprisoned as well and not only for
(Fifteen days earlier).Peter was sitting in one of the office chairs that surrounded the large central table of his office, which was the interior of a shed and a large gray building nicknamed Spaceship, which was nothing more than the headquarters of his security agency, one that he created several years ago after specializing in international security and high-risk protocols.In front of large computer screens, monitors connected to several computers, surrounded by keyboards and mice, he was watching everything, still, thoughtful, after having reviewed the evidence in front of him.He was accompanied by one of his star agents, Jaya Takur, nicknamed J.T., who was an expert in communication technology and research, updated with the latest trends used by the best agencies in the world. Both of them, silent, each one immersed in their investigation, analyzed everything they ordered in front of them.The autopsy was approved by the judge and Peter had just given Maximiliano the results.