After dinner, Renee was about to leave."Why don't you see him off, Lucia?." Graciela quickly added. She noticed all wasn't well between them and whatever it was, she needed to have them resolve it immediately. But they couldn't do it with her around. So she needed to give them a little privacy."But." Lucia tried to protest, she didn't have an excuse to reject him. She just ended up being silent after the "But."She quickly thought of something and spoke quickly."I have to arrange the table and put the dirty dishes away. Aunty, I don't want to take your moment with your son." She quickly said."Don't worry about that Lucia. Renee and I could talk some other day. About the dishes? I'll do them. besides I feel a bit hot, dipping my hands in water could help." She said and quickly rushed off."Bye now, I need to get busy." Graciela left Lucia and Renee in the living room alone while she went to the kitchen.Lucia and Renee were outside the mansion. It was a bit silent, they haven't spo
Saint Lazaro hospital, Mexico City.Ricardo sits in the doctor's office, waiting for him to return with his test results. since he took the blood samples. He was hell-bent on finding a cure to the poisonous substance in his blood. He wants to stay back in Mexico since he failed in his mission by falling for Lucia which didn't do him any good.Soon, the door pushed open slightly and the doctor entered.A middle-aged man wearing a long dazzling lab coat entered the office and walked toward Ricardo."Mr. Rodriguez." he greeted and they shook hands briefly.The man went to seat in the normal place, opposite Ricardo.He adjusted his glasses to rest upon his nose and then read the results in his hands inwardly, although his mouth moved slowly. He quickly cleared his throat and sits upright a bit."Mr. Rodriguez, this is the blood test results for the toxin." He said and handed it over to Ricardo who didn't take it and was rubbing his temples slowly."Just read it out." He said. in an author
Almost an hour later, Lucia had left the design room and was back to hers. What she didn't understand was why Graciela behaved the way she did, when she saw her in the room. The way she panicked and shut her out abruptly. Was very unlike her.The Graciela she knows would never do that.Was there something she didn't know about the design room?She knew she was at fault for intruding into Graciela's privacy in the first place. Had she known, she would have ignored the stupid curiosity of hers. Graciela didn't even give her a chance to explain.She crawled slowly into her bed and covered herself properly. She was so sad, she wanted that night to end quickly. the next morning when she woke up, she saw Graciela sitting on the bed beside her. with sleepy eyes Lucia sprung up quickly."Auntie," she called out and was about to speak until Graciela signaled her not to."No auntie. I have to apologize for my reckless actions last night. I wasn't supposed to go there. I regret it. Please forgi
Whenever things tend to get serious between them, Ricardo gets formal with her. "How did you find me here?." Lucia was curious to know. But Ricardo didn't reply but instead moved closer.This time, Lucia got frightened by the deadly looks on his face. She quickly hurried away from him. Running upstairs to her room and Ricardo followed. The little woman was a bit faster than Ricardo who was trained and running was his specialty. he Caught up to her before she could lock up the room's door.Lucia immediately ran to pick up something to use against him as he entered."D- Don't come near me." She stuttered, pointing the alarm clock at him. It was the only thing she could find at that short period of time. Ricardo felt hurt seeing someone he wanted to protect, Pushing him away. seeing him as an enemy and trying to protect herself against him."Lucia. P-L-E-A-S-E ." Ricardo pleaded slowly because he didn't want to use force on her. He had come to plead with her in the first place but she w
in the car and on their way to the hospital, Lucia seemed devastated about the whole situation.. although she wasn't any form of a doctor or nurse, she could tell that Ricardo's condition might be more worst than she thought. seeing that his pulse was weak according to her observation, and his temperature seemed cold. like a dead body. she tried to recall what happened and she was sure that she didn't push him hard enough to make him be this way. she held his body close to hers, hugging it tightly as she stared at him. "Ricardo. please wake up." She pleaded inwardly. she didn't want Renee to hear her.Renee stared at Lucia through the rare view mirror and was worried about her. He couldn't tell how many times he's seen her brush her fingers through her hair. He became uncomfortable with her dismay. The way she acted with Ricardo was extreme. And if he doesn't Recover from what he suspected might be poison, she would become more devastated. He couldn't deny the fact that he was jealou
"How are you feeling?." Lucia asked after the long silence between them as they kept on staring at each other in the quiet room.Ricardo, who still looked pale and weak from everything tries hard to ignore the pains he felt. trying to seem strong for Lucia. he didn't want her worrying about him or finding out his current condition about the poisoning.Ricardo suddenly began coughing and Lucia rushed to fetch him water from the dispenser at the corner.She rushed back and fed it to him and immediately he drank it all, and he stopped coughing.His throat seemed to be dried up due to the poison."Can I ask you a question, Ricardo?" Lucia proceeded with the conversation."Sure. what do you want to know miss Roberto?.""Please stop the formalities. you can call me Lucia." She cautioned politely. Lucia seemed calmer than ever."I need you to be honest with me. please." she pleaded with a sigh. "Did Roberto poison you?." Lucia asked. Not pretending or hiding the fact that she could guess or
Lucia never thought that she would ever return to the villa. She had thought she was free from the grips of Mr. Roberto. But it wasn't the case. it seems there was no escape for her from him. He was everywhere. She hated the fact that he went as far as poisoning Ricardo to make her return. Lucia walked involuntarily into the mansion and Ricardo followed behind her. they had both agreed to pretend that she wasn't aware of the poison as they were on their way. Lucia knew her dad and he may not comply if he realized that she knew the reason.When they got inside, they met that the family was having dinner in the dining hall. Lucia went straight to meet them there. If she wants Ricardo to be free from the poison, she would have to act respectfully towards Roberto and everyone. How badly she hates pretending."Hi. Roberto." Lucia forced herself to speak and she had her seat beside the strange man who was sitting in between her and Maria.Lucia could feel the burning stare cast at her by C
Mr. Roberto grabbed her jaw tightly again and pressed on it.Lucia felt he would crush her teeth, as it was too painful for her.She struggled to pull out her face, and then she spat on his face.The bodyguards pushed her to the ground harder after she did that.One of them went ahead to pull her hair and slap her for disrespecting Mr. Roberto.Everyone hurried immediately to Mr. Roberto with a tissue to wipe off the spit from his face."Lucia. You must apologize to your father this instance." Claudia declared angrily."Bitch you stay out of this." Lucia cursed out loudly. Grunting as she was being pinned down."Why you little?." Claudia proceeded to hit her but was restrained by Mr Roberto.He ordered his Bodyguards to take Claudia away since she was too angry and might want to vent it out on Lucia.Maria and Royco went with their mother upstairs.Mr Roberto had the spit wiped off from his face and he went to Lucia.He ordered the guards to pick her up to face him which they did almo
Lucia was busy packing up her luggages to leave the villa. She feared that her life was in danger and wanted to leave.She wanted to flee from the country with the little money she had. She would be able to go away for months.She was still busy packing up when the door was opened by Roberto, Ricardo was standing behind him.They were stunned by Lucia's current actions. "What are you doing?" Roberto was the first to ask but Ricardo was the most curious.He didn't understand why Lucia was packing up her luggage."I asked you a question," Roberto questioned, moving towards her.Lucia left the luggage and focused on her father. "I'm leaving, Roberto. I can't stay here anymore. My life is in danger and you aren't doing anything about it!" She declared harshly."Lucia, you can't leave" "I can't stay either, father. I do not want to get killed" She retorted sharply."I would sort that out." "Father, you do not understand how it feels to live in fear everyday! It's devastating. I no longer
It was in the middle of the night when Lucia woke up from sleep. At first, she wanted to go downstairs and get a glass of milk to help her sleep again.But this time, Lucia thought of doing something different. She's consumed a lot of milk these days, trying to suppress her constant hunger for the drugs.She was slowly getting over it and she didn't want to get addicted to something else in return. She stood on the balcony, gazing outside and enjoying the cold midnight breeze.Lucia closed her eyes for a second and opened it. She suddenly felt like seeing Ricardo, she missed him and they haven't seen each other since afternoon.Lucia was disturbed about his absence. At first, she assumed that he was busy. Her father sent him on a lot of errands these days, since he was short of men to use.Lucia decided to go outside and search for him. She moved towards her huge wardrobe and searched for some clothes to wear.It was almost winter, she dared not expose her skin because of the cold. Lu
For the first time in Ricardo's life, he felt his body tremble as a result of the kiss Lucia gave him. The kiss lasted for a while before she pulled out. Ricardo held her close and hugged her tight. "I'll be back, I promise" he said and left. Lucia heaved a heavy sigh as she slumped on the bed. She pulled out her phone from the plug and began to surf the internet. At least, that was the only thing that she could do without anyone restraining her. After a while, she felt like everything had become boring to her. The internet was filled with several news about her, despite the fact that Ricardo had dealt with the publication of the news, some platforms still published it. She was called several names, a slut and a drug addict. Lucia was devastated. They didn't disclose her identity but they kept saying "the Don's daughter" and in the city, Mr. Roberto of the most powerful Don. Which would make anyone guess that it was her who is the drug addict. Lucia felt devastated for the very fir
The next morning was hectic for Lucia as reporters found their ways inside the mansion and had dared to question her about her father's health condition. The new headlines that morning were all about the famous Rich man's daughter that caused her father to fall ill on his birthday. While Lucia was struggling to leave the mansion and head to the company, her car was flooded by these reporters. Ricardo hurried towards the scene and shielded her till they got inside the mansion. Lucia's dress was torn in some parts as they were rough with her. A video showcased online and its content was about everything that transpired between her and her father during his birthday the previous evening. "Investigate from which angle the video git recorded" Ricardo spoke with someone over the phone as he stood near the door inside Lucia's room. Lucia was sitting on the bed, panicking.Reporters were still outside her door knocking and more were flooding inside the apartment premises.Noticing how pale a
Lucia was in her room crying, feeling guilty over her father's health condition. She never thought that things would turn out this way. If she did, she wouldn't have done it. Even though Don Roberto hurt her, she never wished for him to fall sick.Lucia badly wanted someone to talk to, she had expected Ricardo to come in after everything but he didn't even come to check up on her. She was somehow angry at him and at the same time she didn't blame him. Everyone was disappointed at her and she was tagged as a bad daughter. Soon, she changed from the dress and left her room. Lucia wanted to go find Ricardo and talk to him. She expected everyone to judge her except for him.As she stepped out of her room, she noticed Marco sneaking around the corridor leading to her father's study and she followed him stealthily.Meanwhile, Ricardo was still inside the study and he was yet to find anything. This time, he opened the automatic metal detector compass and faced it towards different angles of
The following week,Lucia noticed that the mansion was buzzing with activities. However, no one mentioned to her about any celebration.She checked her calendar to be sure that she wasn't missing out on anything. Just then, she realized that it was her father's birthday that day. Lucia had forgotten about it. She suddenly recalled how they always celebrated his birthdays when she was a kid. It was just her mother, Mr. Roberto and her that celebrated it together. Sometimes they go out to the movies or the park. Her father's birthday was always the best days of her life as she always got to spend quality time with her parents. After she had been absent since the past few years, Lucia was sure that they changed the celebration style.She decided not to acknowledge them since she wasn't invited in the first place. Lucia decided to draw some digital designs and upload them to her catalog online. She was busy working on her laptop when a knock on the door interrupted her.She allowed the p
"Miss Roberto?" "Lucia" She heard Ricardo call out and she suddenly regained herself.Lucia was caught up in her own imagination. From where she stood, Ricardo was far away from her. He didn't even attempt to come near her. Everything was just her imagination."What happened to you?" Ricardo asked curiously and he tried to approach her."No, don't come near me. Stay where you are" she instantly rebuked him."Are you alright?""I'll come meet you downstairs, please leave" Lucia said to him.Ricardo stared at her for a moment before he walked out of the room.Lucia instantly went to lock the door."Lucia, what is wrong with you? Why do I keep on having these silly imaginations?" She scolded herself as she rushed to put her clothes on.She realized that Ricardo had dry-cleaned them which meant that he was the one who changed her clothes. Lucia was caught up in her wild fantasies that she didn't realize that it was Ricardo's shirt she wore when she woke up. Everything seemed so strange
This tastes awful. I'm sorry.." Lucia giggled, trying to be considerate so that he doesn't feel bad about his cooking."Yeah, I expected you to be honest with me," Renee laughed."What do we do? There's no food in this house?" Lucia continued to clean her tongue with a tissue, she didn't seem to get over the greasy taste of the meal."Are you alright?" Ricardo asked."Yes," Lucia nodded."Remind me not to let you cook next time," she said and they both broke into laughter."Can I have something to get rid of this taste?" She requested."Yes, I think some tequila will do. Mum brought some." He excused himself to quickly bring the drink from the bar.Shortly, Renee arrived with a bottle of tequila, a rubber of ice, and two tumbler glasses."Here," he quickly poured some for Lucia and she didn't waste any time in gulping it in quickly. "This is better." She said and breathed in relief.Renee also poured a cup and drank it all."Aren't you going to have more?." He asked Lucia who sudden
Lucia arrived with Renee in his home, Rex decided that he would wait in the car till she was done with Renee. Lucia helped Renee arrange the stuff they got in the kitchen and he volunteered to cook for them. Lucia sucked at cooking and he knew. While he cooked, Lucia sat and watched him in the kitchen. Renee didn't allow her to do anything even when she volunteered to help him."I wouldn't want you to cut your fingers or ruin your acrylics." He said,"Oh that doesn't matter, I'll just get another done." Lucia explained."No, I won't let you stress yourself. Just sit here and watch me perform magic. Trust me, I'll do just fine." Renee led her to the chair and made her sit.He adjusted the apron on his waist and continued chopping his vegetables and at the same time stirring the soup. "So, what are we having tonight?.""I don't know, I saw the recipe online but it's trusted and I'm sure that you'll love it. It's definitely not an Italian dish." He revealed."Oh, it's not? Then I guess