"Chris, I ordered your favourite coffee when Adele told me you were downstairs," my mother says, bringing the steaming cup towards me. "They make it so well here; try it, you'll like it."
"No, mum, I don't drink coffee anymore, it gives me insomnia," I refuse truthfully, despite her pleading and surprised look.
"Since when?" she asks as if caught off guard.
"Give it to me, I'll have it!" Christie chimes in and grabs it, but mum hurriedly takes it back.
"No, dear, I ordered this for you; look here, half milk with sugar. I hope you still drink it."
"Yes, mum, I do and I love it. Thank you, mum," Christie says and takes it.
"Mum, give me the
In a private clinic, a beautiful woman sits in a chair facing the window, unable to believe she is there. An elderly couple enters the room, she turns and runs to meet them."Thank you, Mum, thank you, Dad. You finally found me.""My daughter!"The elderly couple embrace her, crying tears of joy, they check her over, kiss her, and caress her as if they need to make sure it's true that it's her."How are you feeling, daer?""Better, Mum, now that I see you both. I've been so scared thinking I was kidnapped again. How did you manage to find me?""It's a long story, let's go.""Go? Where to?""Where do you think? At our home, we always said you were living abroad. Why didn't you call us sooner, darling?""I was afraid, Dad.""That's in the past, you'll get better, you'll see. We'll take care of you a lot, my daughter. You have no idea how much we missed you.""I'd prefer no one knows I'm with you until I get better.""As
"Well, it could be a hallucination. The truth is, whoever locked her up in that hospital did so with the help of some doctor. Because you don't keep a patient admitted and with no visitation rights for so long just for depression. Your daughter was locked up in that hospital with a court order, as if she were a danger to herself," the doctor explains."We know, I had to pay a lot of money to get the order to remove her from there, and even then, we were pursued," the father reveals."I suggest that for now, you don't tell anyone she's here, let's wait for her to recover," the doctor advises."Do you think she can do it?" the mother asks."I'm not sure, but I have the impression that everything she experiences is caused by the medications. I'll gradually stop them to see if my theory is correct. Then we'll know where we stand," the doctor explains."Do you not think she might actually be crazy?" the father inquires."No! Definitely not! If she does have
"I don't know if it's our Susi, but I'm going to find out, and if it's true that they have her locked up in a hospital in that country, we'll get her back. I promise you! I won't rest until I find our little one."From that day on, he hired detectives in America who didn't rest until they found her. But the situation was more complicated than they had thought. Powerful people were involved and the place was heavily guarded, almost like a prison. He paid countless times to see if he could get her out, but nothing worked.He went in person and couldn't do anything. So he decided to bribe a judge to get the order to let him see her for just two hours, the rest he would do by himself when they travelled to that place. He had invested a fortune in the preparations to recover his daughter, but he wouldn't rest until he achieved it.This is how they had managed to enter that sinister place, with the judge's order for a two-hour visit. Th
I go to Marta's room, who is clad in very tight black trousers that accentuate her beautiful body. Her hair is tousled and adorned with garments, reminding me of the wild girl I met in France."Marta! I almost didn't recognise you!" I exclaim, truly astonished to see her."Why haven't you dressed yet?" she asks, ignoring my exclamation as if it were nothing."I came to see what you were going to wear to match. I've never been to a nightclub, you know," I explain, unable to stop looking at her; she is truly beautiful. "Marta, you've really surprised me. You're very beautiful and you were hiding it.""Stop exaggerating, I just fixed up a bit. What do you mean you don't know what to wear? Bella, we bought you the clothes you should wear, put them on.""Don't you think it's too tight?""No!"At that moment, both she and Christie, who appears dressed almost the same as Marta but in gold trousers, say simultaneously. Mine are dark blu
I jump to my feet and we head to the dance floor. He wraps me in his arms and we dance non-stop for over an hour, laughing and completely happy with my husband, who also seems to be enjoying himself. We return to our table to rest for a bit. The girls are lost, but we're not worried, they're well taken care of. I see Christian furrow his brow and follow his gaze, and I can't believe it. Adele is a little further away, with a woman I can't quite identify, but she seems familiar!"Bella, by any chance are you wearing something my parents gave you?" Christian asks suspiciously as he inspects me."No, my love, why do you ask? You know I don't like jewellery, I only have these earrings that are gifts from my mum and the ring you gave me, nothing else.""I'm starting to suspect that one of us has a follower who tells them where we are," he says as he takes another sip of his drink, still looking towards where she is. "You're ruled out, I don't have anyth
I catch Christian's face and kiss him, making him forget about them. I keep doing it for the rest of the night, even when we get into the limousine, I don't let go of him. We are all a bit drunk. But Christian instructs the driver to stop."Christie, take this key and go with David and Marta to the hotel where my company's party will be held.""Why my brother?" she protests. "I'm very tired! Whatever it is can wait until tomorrow.""I want to check something. Please, Chris, do as I ask," he turns when he sees she is really drunk. "Take care of them, David. Let's go, Bella."We get out of the limousine, which drives away, leaving us in the complete darkness of the street. Another car approaches, and we get in; it's one of the security guards' cars."Where to, boss?" the driver asks. I am also a bit drunk, so I just follow my husband without knowing what he wants to do."Take us to the estate," he orders very seriously, and I still don't understand. "I di
Standing before my father, who observes me in silence, I patiently wait for him to speak. What does it mean that Christian is here in his house, and what did the doctor mean by that? He gestures for me to follow him into the study, and I do so quietly. He sits at his desk and switches on the computer."I want you to see this, Bella. Before I tell you anything, and for you to understand why your husband did what he did."I approach slowly, feeling like I'm about to witness something unpleasant, but I need to know. As I arrive, I see a video of a young man stumbling around a house, his gaze vacant as if he doesn't recognise anyone. I focus and realise it's not our house; it's another one. When the man turns, I see that it's my father when he was young. There's another person being taken away whom I can't recognise because their face is blurred."What does this mean, Dad?""That drug they gave your husband yesterday. That day, my girlfriend was supposed to meet me and disappeared; I neve
I don't know what to think or say right now. I told him so many things, shared my fears, talked about him, about Mum. Now I understand why my secret friend knew how I thought and understood perfectly without much explanation of what I told him, and gave me such good advice. I run towards him and hug him again, happy that he shows me in that way how much he loves me."Are you not upset?""No, I'm not.""Can I now be your best friend instead of your secret friend?""Yes, yes, Dad, I would really like that!" "Then answer me honestly all those questions I asked you." I pause, right now I want to tell him the whole truth, but I'm ashamed of what I did, going to the club, not knowing who the father of my children is, and above all, that Christian is not. I promised not to tell anyone, but Dad is no one; he's my dad! I slump into a chair not knowing what to do or say. It's not just my secret; I need to discuss it with Christian and even with Grandpa. For now, I'll tell him only what I can
Isabella embraces Santiago once again, who returns the hug feeling immense happiness. How could he have deprived himself of this for twenty-three years? He wonders as he discreetly wipes away a tear. Then he separates from his daughter, who responds with a smile and a huge expression of joy that satisfies him, and says to him."Okay, Dad, I'll come and help you, but don't get used to it. Ha, ha, ha... You know very well that I don't like numbers," she then looks at him intently as if pondering what she wants to say, he smiles at her, and it is then that she decides to speak. "Can I ask you something in private?""Of course, my daughter, come with me to the bridge, to take that turn and anchor. Then we will talk about anything you want."Isabella does as he asks, follows him to the bridge, stops by his side to observe him. She hears the commotion of her children approaching with Christian, she receives them excitedly and goes to meet them. Everyone watches the an
"You're right to get out of that. I'll give the order right away. And what are we going to do about Reginaldo?""Leave him for now. Let's see what those two are planning.""The way he left, I don't think he's going to help her this time. I clearly heard him threatening her. Eva was shouting for him, and he didn't turn back. From what I heard, he seems to know a lot of your wife's secrets. Maybe we'll finally find out where Susan is. I can't shake the feeling that it was Eva who kidnapped her, perhaps with Thompson's help.""We've been searching for her for so long without any results that I've lost all hope. I just want to know if she's happy. If she's alive, if she wasn't killed because of me. And look at what happened now unexpectedly. Christian is Thompson's son, he married Isabella and they had two children.""That's true, but that boy takes after his grandfather, not his father. He's a degenerate and hasn't changed yet. I did some digging on him, and h
Christian hurried to help Marta with the box full of files, then placed it on a table. Isabella looked at him, not understanding what he wanted. His sister-in-law, Christie, also helped to arrange everything."Didn't we say we were going to organise everything?" Isabella asked, still working."We did, darling, but now my treatment is more important," Christian replied with a smile."What treatment?""What do you think, Bella? The happiness treatment," Christie said, laughing at her sister-in-law's surprised expression. "The company is ours, and we can do things whenever we want. Especially what you're doing now, we can take it home and do it together.""Not a bad idea," Christian agreed. "Let's do it as my sister says. Now leave everything as it is and let's go. We're all going on a family trip.""What do you mean by all?" Isabella asked."Exactly that, the whole family is going for a walk.""The whole, whole family?" Isabella asked again.
"Because even though you don't remember me, I, on the other hand, could not forget your beautiful hair. I promised myself to come for you when I became an adult. I have just turned eighteen, and I have come for you.""I'm sorry to tell you that you made a trip in vain. My only love has always been Santiago, and it will continue to be for the rest of my life. Santi, I came to find you so you can accompany me to ask my parents for permission, for what you asked me. Shall we go?"I hadn't missed Thompson's look of hatred directed towards me. Nor his desire-filled gaze on Susan. I was sure I would have serious problems with him because of my girlfriend. As we were leaving, I heard him say,"I'm not giving up, I came for you and I won't leave empty-handed.""Stop the jokes Thompson, I think you should know that Susan is my fiancée, the woman I'm going to marry, so show some respect," I reprimanded him sternly."Let's go Santi," Susan pleaded. "You know I o
I am very happy to have reunited the shipping companies. They complement each other. Dad was right about that when he told me. Thank goodness I am feeling much better. Doctor Alfonso was right in everything he explained to me. I don't understand how Eva was able to do that to me, it's true that I didn't love her, but I always treated her very well. I gave her all the money she wanted, bought her everything she wanted to buy. And still, it wasn't enough for her, she had to sell our daughter.I knew Bella couldn't be in love with that guy. If Luis thinks she's going to slip through my fingers because of what he did to my daughter, he's very wrong. He will pay dearly for what he dared to do. It seems like everyone has forgotten who I am. I have to remind them all. It's enough for me to lament losing Susan. Many years have passed since then. And even though I don't believe what Eva told me, I know something happened to my Susan, my heart tells me so, she wouldn't abandon me like sh
I've been in the warehouse for over three hours organising the files with Marta for the new projects. We also want to input all the information into the computers. Suddenly, my phone rings."Hello?""Bella, it's me, Mum.""Mum?" I ask, unable to believe it. "What do you want?""Nothing, aren't you happy to hear from me? Don't you even care about your mother?""Mum, I know you're doing well on your cruise. I ask Dad about you every day. So, tell me why you called, I'm busy.""No, I just wanted to know how you were, my daughter, that's all.""I'm fine, thanks.""Do you know anything about your father?"I realise that's the real reason she called. She wants to know what's going on with Dad. Thankfully, he warned me about this. I know he cut off all the money from the cards. I'm sure she's calling to find out what's happening. Dad told me what to say, so I focused on telling her our plan."Dad moved in with us because he's ba
He is sitting in his office, smiling as he looks at the photos of Lucas and Luci that Marta just brought him in a frame that he proudly places on his desk. He can't help but smile, they look happy. He still remembers when he took that picture of them, it was on their birthday, which by the way, he still doesn't know the result of the investigation. He picks up his phone and dials Grandpa Sardino, who answers right away, and asks for a meeting to meet up."Can I come to your office, Grandpa? I don't want to talk about it at home.""If it's about what happened at the birthday, leave that to me and your father-in-law. Focus on getting better, let's see if you keep recovering your memory.""But Grandpa...""Christian, listen to me son. Santiago and I will handle it and when we have the results we will let you know. You need to be very happy so you can remember how much you loved your wife. I trust you, okay? Don't come, we'll talk at home. Oh, the yacht is free if yo
When he realised she would be useful for something, he took her out of school. But once again, things had not gone as expected. Luis, in his stupidity, had ruined the job that had cost him so much to accomplish. And Isabella, instead of calling her father, making it possible for her to find out in time and prevent her from escaping.Isabella had asked for help from her grandfather, who annulled her marriage and disappeared her from the country, thwarting his plans to acquire the old man's fortune. Not even her husband had helped in his effort to find his daughter. It seemed more like he was glad she had gone with her parents. And now that she had returned, she thought she could sell her to a higher bidder. She was married, no less, to the most sought-after heir in high society. Christian Thompson. And not only that, she had two children with him!How did the foolish Isabella manage to catch him? That, for sure, had been the work of the old Sardino. She remembered he
Eva picked up her phone and called her husband Santiago, but he didn't answer. She was worried, it was the first time this had happened. She would have to go back home again, she thought. She only had a few thousand in a bank account in her name. She didn't want to spend that money. Damn it! I have to delay everything now. She continued towards her room when she received a call."Hello.""Hello, Mrs. Eva, it's Luis.""Luis? What do you want?""I was wondering if you have time to meet with me and Adele, I came up with another plan that you might be interested in.""Luis, I can't right now, I have something else in mind. I'll call you later, let me know when you're going to do what you told me.""Don't do something like what Adele did, we have to be very well coordinated. We are facing a very powerful enemy.""Alright, I'll let you go now, I have something to figure out."She continued moving towards the room, still thinking about and anal