CHAPTER 3

Tears of helplessness sprang to Cristal's eyes. He had to be a goddamn unscrupulous being, a goddamn man who didn't care how much she might be suffering at that moment. 

"You, go to hell!!" Crystal shouted at the top of her lungs.

Smiling, as if that was all he knew how to do, Brandon turned around only to grab that white rose in the vase on a table to the left.

Walking towards the rose, thinking that the least he could give her at that moment was that to celebrate her womanhood by giving her a child, a child that would be the blessing of all those belonging to that family, he took it from the vase with the intention of giving it to her.

The doctor and the nurse were making a superhuman effort to keep her still. Reinforcements were on their way.

Kissing that rose with such delicacy, Brandon placed it on Crystal's hands, the same one that was moving from one side to the other wanting to get rid of those women.

"I don't know if you've been given roses before, but what better time to give you a rose than now?" Brandon asked, placing it in her hands.

" I wish you would die, I wish you would die now!" shouted Crystal.

A doctor made his appearance. There was no way out for her now when the truth was that she never had a way out, she never had a choice, only a dark path ahead.

"Good luck, dear wife!" said Brandon just before he turned around and left through the same door he had left before.

And fighting to the end, Crystal struggled to be let go of her only destiny. In one of those many movements, even wanting to remove the rose that Brandon had left on her, feeling that it burned her, that it was like a poison that spread throughout her being, Crystal did everything she could to free herself from the grip of one of the nurses who, for some strange reason, had a scalpel in her hand, only to end up hurting herself the moment it cut off part of her arm.

Tears of terror, pain, sadness and humiliation came out of her eyes as she felt she could not take it anymore as the doctor had grabbed her so hard as to let her know it was useless to fight. All she could feel were the ribbons tangled around her wrists, her abdomen and upper arms.

How much more was she going to resist? How much more did she have to give before she realized that Brandon would forever be the one to blame for whatever was going to happen to him? How many more signs did she have to receive before she stopped having faith in a person who was the one who was hurting her the most by treating her like an animal, worse than an animal?

The blood coming out of her arm managed to stain the petals of that beautiful rose that had been placed on her, showing how delicate she was but at the same time, how humiliated she was being.                 

In her arm the substance that would make her calm down was injected to then travel through her veins until she felt more clumsy than she already felt herself to be.

With nothing to do but being aware of everything the doctor was doing, tears fell from her eyes as she felt the instrument used by the doctor being the humiliation that no one would ever be.

That fairy tale she had dreamed of was just trash, that prince charming she dreamed of to love had been nothing more than a figment of her imagination, that love she dreamed of giving to someone else was nothing more than trash now that simple instruments had the ability to humiliate her like no one else had ever done.

Brandon, Brandon Lambert was to blame for everything. She would never forget that humiliation, those words, nothing would ever make her forget that he was her true enemy. He would pay for it, sooner or later he was going to pay for the biggest mistake he had made with her, she swore she was going to regret it because from that moment on she had no more feelings for him, no more hope that someday he would show himself as that naïve child she had once comforted, the same one she had given a baseball to. That person was dead. The one who lived in him was his only true enemy.

He was going to pay dearly for the consequences. That was only the beginning, he accepted his defeat, now he only hoped that when the time came, Brandon would accept his, because from that moment on, he would no longer see in her the submissive woman, the same one who was willing to obey him in everything. She would be reborn, she would be reborn and she would be someone else. He swore it.

Finally the coldness of the instruments used by the doctor touched her skin, at that moment Crystal knew that there was nothing and no one who could get her out of there.

The white rose stained with blood, the rose that signified her innocence, the rose that signified how pure she could remain, fell from her hands until it finally touched the ground and was treated as just another object.

Brandon had not failed to give her that rose, the blood had not failed to fall on its petals, that rose had no other meaning but that of her innocence, the innocence that the doctor's instruments had taken away from her to the point of making her feel humiliated.

The medicine was beginning to take effect. The memories were fading from her gaze, and yet, among all those that hurt the most, she still managed to see light on her next plans. She was going to get revenge. No one else was ever going to humiliate her like Brandon had managed to do not once, not twice, not three, countless times.

"So many things can happen in two months," said Crystal, being heard by Sebastian.

"You have to act carefully. You have to see the only reality that is what Brandon puts in front of you day by day.”

"Just two months and this will be over.”

"It's time to let him see who you really are, Crystal. You don't have to put up with any more. Brandon may not be as powerful as he thinks he is.”

Crystal looked at Sebastian, what he was saying at that moment was important.

"What are you talking about?”             

"When I say that Brandon cannot be the person he thinks he is, it is because I say that you can be more than him if you treat him as one more card in this game he started. It's time to forget about that past love, that love no longer exists, that person no longer exists. Forget about him as he has forgotten you.”  

And with those last words in her mind, remembering again and again, proving him right once more, Crystal closed her eyes. The medicine had taken effect in her.

One last tear escaped her eyes, the rose on the floor was finally stepped on by the nurse at her side as she bandaged her arm to prevent more blood from leaking out.

It was all over. Everything had ended only to begin again, it was time to switch roles, Brandon had already had so much fun and now, it was her turn to treat him as just another card in the game, Brandon would be nothing more than an instrument for the moment when Crystal would claim her life back from her grandfather when the time came.

Pain is paid with pain.